Whistleblowing as civil disobedience

Abstract

The media hoop-la about Edward Snowden has obscured a less flashy yet more vital -and philosophically relevant -part of the story, namely the moral and political seriousness with which he acted to make the hitherto covert scope and scale of NSA surveillance public knowledge. Here I argue that we should interpret Snowden's actions as meeting most of the demanding tests outlined in sophisticated political thinking about civil disobedience. Like Thoreau, Gandhi, King and countless other (forgotten) grass-roots activists, Snowden has in fact articulated a powerful defense of why he was morally obligated to engage in politically motivated law-breaking. He has also undertaken impressive efforts to explain how his actions are distinguishable from ordinary criminality, and why they need not culminate in reckless lawlessness. In fact, his example can perhaps help us advance liberal and democratic ideas about civil disobedience. First, it highlights sound reasons why, pace the orthodox view, the acceptance of punishment by those engaging in civil disobedience should not be seen as a precondition of its legitimacy. Second, Snowden reminds us that ours is an era in which intensified globalization processes directly shape every feature of political existence. Defenders of civil disobedience need to update their reflections accordingly.

As Coalizões Do “Presidencialismo De Coalizão” No Brasil: A Gênese Legislativa Na Experiência Constitucional De 1988

“…De outro lado, inclusive no âmbito não estatal, a revelação ameaça o monopólio do segredo e gera a perseguição institucional dos que o corromperam, bem como poucas ou paradoxais mudanças dos regimes jurídicos e políticos (POHLE; VAN AUDENHOVE, 2017). O caso Snowden levantou questões relacionadas fundamentalmente à desobediência civil na esfera digital (BROWNLEE, 2016;LAGASNERIE, 2016;SCHEUERMAN, 2014), além de reclames porum ambiente digital anônimo (THIEL, 2016). Nessa lógica inserem-se os whistleblowers, em âmbitos estatal ou não, como Vladimir Bukovsky, W. Mark Felt e Snowden, bem como organizações propagadoras como o Wikileaks de Assange.…”

Civil Disobedience

“…Another is to argue that even where citizens have a duty to obey the law, they also have a moral right to engage in suitably constrained civil disobedience (Lefkowitz 2007;Brownlee, 2012;Smith, 2013). Yet another strategy emphasizes the role of civil disobedience in buttressing the democratic rule of law (Dworkin, 1985;Scheuerman, 2015).…”

Post-Snowden Internet Policy: Between Public Outrage, Resistance and Policy Change

“…In this context, many authors discuss the particularities of the growing phenomenon of digital disobedience (e.g. Lagasnerie, 2016;Scheuerman, 2016), the problem of counter-surveillance as a form of resistance (Gürses, Kundnani, & Van Hoboken, 2016) and the question whether Snowden's deeds can be characterised as acts of civil disobedience (Brownlee, 2016;Scheuerman, 2014). Focussing on whistleblowing as a particular form of resistance, other contributions range from historical perspectives on national security leaks (Gardner, 2016;Moran, 2015) to the problem of legal protection (e.g.…”