Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is not happy with the NSA meddling around Facebook's systems so he reached out to the White House to President Barack Obama to discuss the issue of NSA spying on millions of Facebook users. The agency quickly denied it. This has led to Mark Zuckerberg and President Obama exchanging heated words.
The Facebook founder lashed out words for the Unites States President last Thursday amid on the ongoing complaints from the tech community regarding the administration's role to the internet.
It was just one day after the National Security Agency was reported posing as Facebook to secretly spy on millions of Facebook users. Mark Zuckerberg posted a plea on his social networking site advocating to President Obama regarding the White House's role in influencing and encouraging policy changes on the internet as well as the government's covert surveillance tactics that have caused concerns to be raised in recent months about the security of the world's wired computers.
Zuckerberg post stated that,
"As the world becomes more complex and governments everywhere struggle, trust in the internet is more important today than ever," the 29-year-old Facebook CEO said Thursday afternoon. "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."
"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."
He further added, they need much more transparent about what they're doing, or otherwise people will believe the worst."
Zuckerberg's status update comes a day after documents from whistle-blower Edward Snowden revealed that the NSA uses an automated system called Turbine to hack into millions of computers. The NSA has even posed as a fake Facebook server to infect a target's computer, according to The Intercept.
NSA denied the claims and quickly responded by saying,
"Recent media reports that allege NSA has infected millions of computers around the world with malware, and that NSA is impersonating U.S. social media or other websites, are inaccurate."
"NSA 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."
In its statement, the NSA denied impersonating "U.S. company websites" but did not extend that denial to foreign company websites.
The agency said it doesn't target global Internet services "without appropriate legal authority. Reports of indiscriminate computer exploitation operations are simply false."
