Now terrorism is not the greatest threat facing our societies.

Hong Kong has a reputation for freedom in spite of the People's Republic of China. It has a strong tradition of free speech.

We can still publicly post a message to Facebook that's globally readable. But we could also adjust things so that they can only be shared with those closest to us, and the confident that this is enforced through both legal and a systemic standards-based protection.

The work of a generation is beginning here, with your hearings, and you have the full measure of my gratitude and support.

Arguing that you don't care about privacy because you have nothing to hide is no different than saying you don't care about free speech because you have nothing to say.

If I and other whistleblowers are sentenced to long years in prison without so much as a chance to explain our motivations to a jury, it will have a deeply chilling effect on future whistleblowers working as I did to expose government abuse and overreach. It will chill speech. It will corrode the quality of our democracy.

Do we want to emulate China in the way that China emulates the West? I think, for most Americans, the answer to that question would be no.