Edward Snowden further criticized the actions of the NSA at this year’s South By Southwest (SXSW (News - Alert)) in Austin, TX, where he appeared by video conferencing link, saying the agency is “setting fire to the future of the Internet.”

The talk, dubbed “A Virtual Conversation with Edward Snowden,” took place in front of a packed auditorium, where Snowden joined the audience via a live video stream from Russia. He addressed the future of privacy online and the powers that agencies like the NSA exercise.

“The NSA...they’re setting fire to the future of the Internet. And the people in this room, you guys are the firefighters. We need you to help us fix this,” said Snowden, calling on the tech industry to take a more active approach in curbing spying.

“The tech community are the ones who could help fix this situation, more than people in Washington,” he said. “There’s a tech response needed. It’s the makers, thinkers, and the dev community who can help make sure we’re safe.”

Edward Snowden was joined by Christopher Soghoian, the principal technologist of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), and the talk was moderated by Ben Wizner, also of the ACLU, who is Snowden’s legal advisor.

Snowden went to say that encryption was currently the most effective way to protect yourself online. “They [US government] have no idea what documents were provided to journalists, because encryption works,” he said. “We need to think about it not as an arcane dark art, but a protection against the dark arts.”

Soghoian agreed with Snowden’s assertion that tech companies like Google (News - Alert) need to step up to address these privacy and spying concerns. “Unfortunately it took the largest whistle-blower in history to get these companies to prioritize their customer’s privacy,” he said.

Snowden ended by saying that accountability was vital and that the Constitution had been violated, something that needs to be addressed too. “Regardless of what happens to me, this is something we had a right to. I took an oath to support and defend the Constitution and I saw that the Constitution was being violated on a massive scale,” he said.