Lecture and Discussion: Markus Beckedahl (Netzpolitik.org) - “An Abyss of #Landesverrat”

In conjunction with the exhibition “Whistleblowers & Vigilantes. Figures of Digital Resistance” , a lecture by the author and Internet activist Markus Beckedahl will be presented in cooperation with medienwerk.nrw at the Hartware MedienKunstVerein on May 13.

Starting with a case that was in the headlines throughout German the event will address current issues of surveillance and dissidence in the context of digital culture and society.

“An Abyss of #Landesverrat [Treason]”
Last summer it was revealed that the chief federal prosecutor had launched investigations into two journalists from netzpolitik.org. It happened because netzpolitik.org released excerpts from the budget plans of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution—Germany’s counterpart to the FBI or MI5—that proved that two years after Snowden Internet surveillance in Germany was going to be massively increased.

Thanks to an enormous wave of solidarity, #Landesverrat became a minor national scandal that led to the chief federal prosecutor taking early retirement and left many questions unanswered. In his lecture, Markus Beckedahl, the editor-in-chief of netzpolitik.org and one of those being investigated, will review the scandal around #Landesverrat and in the process show that a vigilant civil society is important and necessary in times of increasing surveillance.

Markus Beckedahl is editor-in-chief of netzpolitik.org and a former state-certified traitor under reasonable suspicion. He cofounded newthinking GmbH and the re:publica conferences, which he has organized since 2007. Since 2010 he has been a member of the media committee of the Landesmedienanstalt (Regional office of media) of Berlin-Brandenburg. From 2010 to 2013, he was an expert witness for the Bundestag’s investigating committee on the Internet and digital society. As both author and editor, he has contributed to several books on central issues of Internet policy.