Edward Snowden to speak to SXSW

AUSTIN, Texas, March 7 (UPI) -- NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, who is living as a fugitive in Russia, will speak by teleconference to the South by Southwest festival in Austin on Monday.

Snowden, who fled the United States last June with thousands of secret documents, will participate in a discussion and answer audience questions in an 11 a.m. session that will be livestreamed by the Texas Tribune.

"The conversation will be focused on the impact of the NSA's spying efforts on the technology community and the ways in which technology can help to protect us from mass surveillance," a release from SXSW says.

Snowden will be joined by Christopher Soghoian, the principle technologist from the American Civil Liberties Union, and moderated by Ben Wizner, Snowden's legal advisor and the director of the ACLU's Speech Privacy & Technology Project.

[SXSW]