NSA whistle-blower Edward Snowden spoke to SXSW attendees in Austin via a video feed from Russia on Monday, urging the tech community to become "firefighters" against the "adversarial" agency under scrutiny for its mass surveillance program.

He said the NSA is "setting fire to the future of the Internet," and urged the packed exhibit hall to "help us fix this."

He also called for public advocates to become "civil rights champions" for privacy issues.