Facebook head complains to Obama over privacy

Mark Zuckerberg, the head of Facebook, has revealed that he telephoned the US president to complain that the US government is undermining confidence in the internet.

In a post on his Facebook page on Thursday, Facebook’s founder expressed anger towards Washington, in what appeared to be a reaction to some of the latest revelations about US government surveillance.

“I’ve called President Obama to express my frustration over the damage the government is creating for all of our future,” he wrote. “Unfortunately, it seems like it will take a very long time for true full reform.”

Zuckerberg’s comments come amid growing tensions between the technology sector and US administration over leaked documents describing the vast surveillance ability of the National Security Agency and other spy 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,” he said.

“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.”

Facebook users have consistently expressed their concern over the social media network’s data collection practices, and how it uses private information.

The comments come a day after a report citing leaked NSA documents said the secretive spy agency had imitated a Facebook server to inject malware into computers to expand its intelligence collection capacity.

The report by former Guardian reporter Glenn Greenwald said the NSA had developed malware that allows it to collect data automatically from millions of computers worldwide.