By Bronte Price, PoliticKING
NSA whistleblower, Edward Snowden, recently spoke out against the FBI’s claim that it needs Apple to unlock the iPhone of a San Bernardino shooter. Speaking to a crowd in Washington from Moscow, Snowden said, “The FBI says Apple has the ‘exclusive technical means’ to unlock the phone.” He added, “respectfully, that’s horse sh*t.”
Edward Snowden: The FBI's claims about that locked iPhone are "bulls***" https://t.co/cK4kO4wt0Hpic.twitter.com/oHWSvCWyrX
— CNET (@CNET) March 9, 2016
Snowden made waves as the whistleblower who revealed several secretive spying programs at the NSA. He fled the country and now resides in Russia, where he’s protected from U.S. law enforcement. The U.S. government has revoked Snowden’s passport and said that they want him to return to the U.S. to be charged. Snowden, however, is seeking permanent asylum, so he can’t be charged in the U.S. courts.
The global technological consensus is against the FBI. Why? Here's one example: https://t.co/t2JHOLK8iU#FBIvsApplehttps://t.co/mH1ZXOOQ1E
— Edward Snowden (@Snowden) March 8, 2016
After his comments on Tuesday, Snowden tweeted a link to an American Civil Liberties Union blog post, titled “One of the FBI’s Major Claims in the iPhone Case Is Fraudulent.” The article argues that the FBI doesn’t actually need Apple’s help to get past the “auto-erase” feature on the iPhone. Many tech experts, as well as some lawmakers share this sentiment. In the post, Daniel Kahn Gilmor, an ACLU technology fellow, calls the FBI's case against Apple a "power grab."
"The FBI wants us to think that this case is about a single phone, used by a terrorist," Gilmor said. He added that it is an attempt "to weaken the ecosystem we all depend on for maintenance of our all-too-vulnerable devices" and, he said, to ensure that future software updates contain "deliberately weakened code."
Here’s what Jesse Ventura has to say about the NSA:
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