Snowden, Poitras and Greenwald conduct Reddit Q & A to answer fans’ questions on film and Oscars

EDWARD Snowden and the makers of Citizenfour took to Reddit this morning to answer questions on everything from data retention to NPH’s Oscar joke.

Snowden: ‘I laughed at NPH’

LEAVE it to Edward Snowden to make Neil Patrick Harris look lame.

The infamous whistleblower participated in a live reddit Q&A overnight where he responded to a joke made by the Oscars’ host at his expense.

“Edward Snowden couldn’t be here for some treason...” remarked NPH after Citizenfour — the documentary that showed the process of Edward Snowden’s NSA (National Security Agency) leaks — took home Oscar gold yesterday for best documentary.

But Mr. Snowden obviously didn’t find the gag funny as evidenced by his chat with filmmaker Laura Poitras and journalist Glenn Greenwald on Reddit.

Here’s what they had to say:

On the NSA leaks:

When asked if he had his time again, would he do anything differently, Mr. Snowden said he only wished he had been more expeditious in his dissent.

“Had I come forward a little sooner, these programs would have been a little less entrenched, and those abusing them would have felt a little less familiar with and accustomed to the exercise of those powers,” he said.

MORE: Snowden and the NSA leaks

Mr. Snowden has done a number of public appearances via video link since being exiled in Moscow however this morning represented the first real chance for the public to question him and the journalists who exposed the NSA spying practises.

Many Reddit users heaped praise on the group for risking their security to publicise the information but Mr. Snowden had some ominous words to share.

“Once you grant the government some new power or authority, it becomes exponentially more difficult to roll it back. Don’t let it happen in your country,” he said.

On Neil Patrick Harris’ Oscars joke:

One of the most popular questions in the forum was that which sought the group’s reaction to the treason joke from Oscars host, Neil Patrick Harris.

“To be honest, I laughed at NPH. I don’t think it was meant as a political statement, but even if it was, that’s not so bad. My perspective is if you’re not willing to be called a few names to help out your country, you don’t care enough,” Mr. Snowden said.

Despite feeling like Buzzfeedhad taken his reaction to the joke out of context, journalist Glenn Greenwald shared Mr. Snowden’s nonchalance towards the joke.

“I learned of NPH’s joke after I left the stage (he said it as we were walking off). I was going to tweet something about it and decided it was too petty and inconsequential even to tweet about — just some lame wordplay Oscar joke from a guy who had just been running around onstage in his underwear moments before. So I forgot about it. My reaction was similar to Ed’s, though I did think the joke was lame.”

On government power:

Both Laura Poitras and Glenn Greenwald said they will be doing more reporting on the NSA leaks but said they were happy with the impact their work has had on the discussion over privacy rights.

“Ultimately, if people lose their willingness to recognise that there are times in our history when legality becomes distinct from morality, we aren’t just ceding control of our rights to government, but our futures,” said Mr. Greenwald.

“I suspect that governments today are more concerned with the loss of their ability to control and regulate the behaviour of their citizens than they are with their citizens’ discontent.”

The sentiments from the Oscar winning journalist are particularly relevant to the ongoing debate in Australia around the role of data retention in protecting citizens.

Speaking at a Tech conference in NSW yesterday, Australian Federal Police Assistant Commissioner, Tim Morris reiterated the need for data retention to combat terrorism.

Mr. Morris said that “those with nothing to hide have nothing to fear” — an argument that Mr. Greenwald labelled as “inane” in the Q & A before offering alternative scenarios.

“We can develop new tools and traditions to protect our rights, and we can do our best to elect new and better representatives, but if we cannot enforce consequences on powerful officials for abusive behaviour, we end up in a system where the incentives reward bad behaviour post-election,” he said.

“That’s how we end up with candidates who say one thing but, once in power, do something radically different.”

So proud of the @reddit team today. This was an historic AMA w Snowden & #CITIZENFOUR team http://t.co/9SFKo2EOVN pic.twitter.com/xfjp9rqIc5

— Alexis Ohanian (@alexisohanian) February 23, 2015