NEW YORK (CNNMoney) — Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg on Thursday said he called President Obama to express frustration about the government’s spying and hacking programs.
“When our engineers work tirelessly to improve security, we imagine we’re protecting you against criminals, not our own government,” Zuckerberg wrote in a Facebook post Thursday afternoon.
His concerns are based on the latest reports from investigative reporters at The Intercept, which reveal that the National Security Agency has weaponized the Internet, making it possible to inject bad software into innocent peoples’ computers en masse.
The report is based on documents provided by ex-NSA contractor Edward Snowden.
Zuckerberg took to Facebook to decry the tactic, saying it runs counter to the company’s attempts to protect its users. He noted that Facebook encrypts users’ communications, uses secure software and encourages people to use safer sign-in procedures.
“The U.S. government should be the champion for the Internet, not a threat,” Zuckerberg wrote. “They need to be much more transparent about what they’re doing, or otherwise people will believe the worst.
Zuckerberg said he called President Obama to express his frustration. But he said he’s not holding out hope for a quick change.
“Unfortunately, it seems like it will take a very long time for true full reform,” he concluded.
The Obama administration did not immediately return calls for comment.
Below is the full post he made on Facebook.
As the world becomes more complex and governments everywhere struggle, trust in the internet is more important today than ever.
The internet is our shared space. It helps us connect. It spreads opportunity. It enables us to learn. It gives us a voice. It makes us stronger and safer together.
To keep the internet strong, we need to keep it secure. That’s why at Facebook we spend a lot of our energy making our services and the whole internet safer and more secure. We encrypt communications, we use secure protocols for traffic, we encourage people to use multiple factors for authentication and we go out of our way to help fix issues we find in other people’s services.
The internet works because most people and companies do the same. We work together to create this secure environment and make our shared space even better for the world.
This is why I’ve been so confused and frustrated by the repeated reports of the behavior of the US government. When our engineers work tirelessly to improve security, we imagine we’re protecting you against criminals, not our own government.
The US government should be the champion for the internet, not a threat. They need to be much more transparent about what they’re doing, or otherwise people will believe the worst.
I’ve called President Obama to express my frustration over the damage the government is creating for all of our future. Unfortunately, it seems like it will take a very long time for true full reform.
So it’s up to us — all of us — to build the internet we want. Together, we can build a space that is greater and a more important part of the world than anything we have today, but is also safe and secure. I’m committed to seeing this happen, and you can count on Facebook to do our part.
