Government Surveillance: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)

Why HN readers recommended it

HN points to it as the best way to explain to ordinary people why privacy and mass surveillance matter.

This is a summary from the source dataset, not an endorsement by Hacker News or the video creator.

Video & recommendation details

Creator / channel

LastWeekTonight

Topic

government surveillance

Format

interview

Level

general

HN recommenders in dataset

5

HN mentions in dataset

20

Recommendation years in dataset

2015–2023

These counts and years describe the included Hacker News records; they are not YouTube views or the video’s publication date.

From the original HN conversations

Excerpts from the recorded comments. Follow each source for the full comment and surrounding discussion.

• Last Week Tonight did this bit brilliantly when they interviewed Edward Snowden - [VIDEO] - in essence we need to get dramatically better at telling this story so everyone understands.

• That is a good question because it comes up a lot and people start explaining ideologies rather than showing real world examples. I believe John Oliver provided the best example when he interviewed Edward Snowden. John walked around town asking people how they felt about …

• This paints an unfair portrait of the average American. It isn't that they don't care, they just aren't as technologically savvy as this audience. Take the Edward Snowden leaks. John Oliver did a wonderful segment interviewing people about NSA surveillance.[1] If you ask an average …