One big benefit to having media credentials at Web Summit is you get access to press conferences at the event.

I miss the first half of Harry Nym and Chelsea Manning’s twenty minute talk at Stage 11.

I found the chess stall. What can I say?

Luckily for me though, they’re also booked in for a thirty minute press conference.

The talk was on the same stuff as last year, at least based on the portion of it I heard. Advertising their mixnet, Nym, and telling us why it’s better than Tor.

The seats in this room are a lot emptier than last year, when the absence of some of Web Summit’s biggest corporate partners turned some of these relative tech-industry outsiders into Web Summit’s top speakers.

Harry Nym offers to give us security training instead of a traditional press conference. He puts it to a vote. Most abstain but a few raised hands turn him down.

They give us the pitch for Nym again, which still sounds compelling.

The first question is about Trump’s reelection and is answered by Chelsea. She describes the Trump regime as “openly authoritarian” and drops governments like Russia, Turkey, and others as possible reference points.

Then there’s a question on the creation of national borders on the internet. Chelsea answers with a focus on VPNs as an anti-censorship tool on an increasingly splintered internet as climate collapse continues.

Harry predicts the US becoming more hostile towards Europe and highlights that the US surveillance apparatus is likely to increasingly become directed at Europe.

Amy Grace from Lissbon Tags: Websummit