The fallout from the Sony hack continues as President Obama made remarks on the controversy surrounding The Interview.
The fallout from the Sony hack has reached the White House. On Friday, President Obama, speaking to the press during his end of year news conference, took a hardline stance on what the FBI has deemed as a cyberattack from North Korea.
The president said the United States would respond “proportionally" to the attack by a group called the “Guardians of Peace," after it leaked private e-mails and documents from Sony in retaliation for the satirical look at North Korea in its in new film, The Interview. Earlier this week, every major theater chain in the country pulled the film before Sony cancelled the December 25 release after the “Guardians of Peace" threatened a 9/11-style attack if the film did hit theaters.
“I am sympathetic to the concern [Sony] face," President Obama said. "Having said all that I think they made a mistake." Sony did not reached out to the White House before making the decision to pull The Interview.
President Obama continued: “We cannot have a society in which some dictator some place can start imposing censorship in the United States. If someone is able to intimidate folks out of releasing a satirical movie, imagine what they start doing when they see a documentary that they don’t like or news reports that they don’t like.”
There has been harsh criticism of Sony and theater chains across the country for pulling the film. Since the decision was made, the hackers sent another email to Sony execs, which reads as follows:
It’s very wise that you have made a decision to cancel the release of ‘The Interview.’ It will be very useful for you. We believe you will never be engaged in something dangerous like that. Now we want you never let the movie released, distributed or leaking in an form of, for instance, DVD or piracy. And we want everything related to the movie, including its trailers, as well as its full version down from any website hosting them immediately….
Earlier today, the FBI released a statement on its investigation of the hack: “As a result of our investigation, and in close collaboration with other U.S. government departments and agencies, the FBI now has enough information to conclude that the North Korean government is responsible for these actions.”
More on this developing story as we get it.
If you’d like to watch the trailer of The Interview, please, by all means, enjoy it below. Also, post it on your Facebook, Tweet it to your friends and Pinterest it!
Den of Geek Editor Chris Longo sometimes conducts interviews. Talk to him on Twitter about it.
