On Thursday,
Mark Zuckerberg the founder of social media giant,
Facebook, publicly posted his issues with the NSA, on his
own Facebook page:
"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.
The
N.S.A. responded in a statement Thursday:
“N.S.A. uses its technical capabilities only to support lawful and appropriate foreign intelligence operations, all of which must be carried out in strict accordance with its authorities,” the agency said. “Reports of indiscriminate computer exploitation operations are simply false.”
According to the
New York times, "a White House spokeswoman confirmed that the president spoke with Mr. Zuckerberg on Wednesday night but declined further comment beyond the N.S.A.’s statement."
Many have issues with Zuckerberg. My admiration grew when I discovered he joined Bill Gates and Warren Buffet in The Giving Pledge. They donate over 50% of their profits to charity. In 2013, Mark Zuckerberg and his wife donated close to $1 Billion to charity. Some of that money went to Planned Parenthood. He is also known to stand up for such causes as immigration and education.