Austin, March 11 (RHC)-- U.S. whistleblower Edward Snowden urged people to help "fix" the U.S. government spying on its citizens. On Monday, in a teleconference connection to the U.S. city of Austin, Texas and the "South by Southwest (SXSW) Interactive Conference," Snowden said: "There's a political response that needs to occur, but there's also a tech response that needs to occur."

The conference "South by Southwest" marked the first time the former security contractor has spoken to the U.S. public directly since he left the United States and gave thousands of classified National Security Agency documents to journalists.

Snowden said he does not regret his decision to leak NSA documents. He said: "Would I do it again? Absolutely. Regardless of what happens to me, this is something we had a right to." To the applause from the 3,000 people in the auditorium at the Austin Convention Center, Edward Snowden said: "I took an oath to support and defend the Constitution. And I saw the Constitution was being violated on a massive scale." During his speech, Snowden took questions both from the audience and from Twitter.

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange also appeared on the screen at SXSW over the weekend in a separate appearance. Assange said that the National Security Agency has "grown to be a rogue agency.” Assange, speaking from the Ecuadorian embassy in London where he has been holed up for for nearly two years, said: “We have to do something about it. All of us have to do something about it.”

Glenn Greenwald, a civil liberties lawyer and journalist, who was trusted by Snowden to report NSA spying efforts, is also scheduled to speak at South by Southwest Festival, which will run until next Sunday, March 16th.