OAKLAND — Controversial whistleblower-in-exile Edward Snowden on Tuesday told an Oakland audience that the country’s future rests in the hands of the people, not President-elect Donald Trump — a message that left some in the palpably anti-Trump crowd with a feeling of hope.

“If you want to build a better future, you’re going to have to do it yourself,” Snowden said, speaking from Russia through a video connection. “Politics will only take you so far.”

For the crowd of more than 200 people at the Oakland Museum of California, the talk was a chance to hear from the mysterious and polarizing fugitive who has been hiding out in Russia to escape espionage charges in the U.S. A former government contractor, Snowden leaked a trove of classified National Security Agency documents in 2013 that revealed the NSA had been collecting Americans’ phone records, spying on world leaders and conducting other secret surveillance operations.

Now as President Barack Obama prepares to leave office, a contentious debate continues in Silicon Valley and beyond over whether Snowden should receive a pardon — with supporters such as Twitter and Square founder Jack Dorsey and Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak lauding him as a hero, and opponents including venture capitalist Marc Andreessen decrying him as a traitor.

On Tuesday, Snowden’s message seemed intended to unify, rather than divide. In response to a question about Trump’s impending presidency, Snowden said politicians only can do so much, and encouraged the American people to mobilize and fight to protect human rights.

“Elections matter. Votes matter. But they’re never enough,” Snowden said. “When we put too much faith into elected officials, we’re making a mistake.”

That goes for Obama — who fell short on promises to close the Guantanamo Bay detention center and end wiretapping — as well as Trump, Snowden said.

He didn’t mention that Trump in the past has tweeted that Snowden should be executed.

To Nicole Ozer, technology and civil liberties policy director for the ACLU of California, Snowden’s talk was a call for citizens to mobilize and protect the rights some Democrats worry will suffer under a Trump administration.

“You can let worry and fear shut you down, or you can channel that into action,” said Ozer, who was in the audience Tuesday. “I think Snowden was channeling what a lot of folks in this audience feel — which is that now is the time for action.”

Snowden was the keynote speaker for Fusion media‘s Real Future Fair. He wheeled onstage in robot form — his face was displayed on a video screen attached to a slender robotic body, about the height of a person, that made it seem almost as if he were in the room.

In a fireside chat with Real Future editor Kashmir Hill, Snowden discussed the election, privacy and the recent controversy over fake news on Facebook. The social networking site has faced questions over whether phony stories — including one claiming Trump received an endorsement from Pope Francis — influenced the outcome of the election, though CEO Mark Zuckerberg has dismissed that idea.

Snowden said the issue highlights how dangerous tech titans such as Facebook and Google can become. These companies dictate much of the content people see online, but they are so huge that they face virtually no competition, he said.

“They get less careful,” Snowden said. “They get more muscular over time, and eventually they end up trampling not just their customers, but paradigms.”

Geoff Lewis of San Francisco, who was in the audience Tuesday, said Snowden made him question how his decade of Facebook use has shaped his views.

“How much digital information have I consumed, and what has this done to me?” the 30-year-old wondered.

Snowden ended the talk by addressing the issue most often associated with his name — privacy. Reading a question from the audience, Hill asked: What can someone do to protect his or her privacy and rights?

It’s not easy, Snowden said, as there are ways to track online activity even if someone uses encryption. He encouraged the audience to support organizations such as the American Civil Liberties Union and the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

“The first thing is to care and to signal that you care,” Snowden said. “Be that person at Thanksgiving who brings it up.”