Andy Greenberg at Forbes.com writes:
Mark Zuckerberg isn’t the first name that comes to mind as a champion of privacy. But the seemingly endless revelations of NSA surveillance programs has inspired Facebook’s founder to call up no less than President Obama himself to defend his users from government intrusion.
On Thursday Zuckerberg posted a statement on Facebook calling on the U.S. government to take more measures to respect users’ privacy and security. “The US government should be the champion for the internet, not a threat,” reads his statement. “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.”
Zuckerberg sitting to Obama’s right at a White House dinner in 2011.
Reuters reports:
The phone call and Zuckerberg’s 300-word post on Thursday come amid a series of revelations about controversial government surveillance practices that were leaked by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden.
“The president spoke last night with Mark Zuckerberg about recent reports in the press about alleged activities by the U.S. intelligence community,” a White House official said.
The official declined further comment and referred to the National Security Agency’s statement released earlier on Thursday saying recent media reports that allege the NSA has infected million of computers around the world malware and that the NSA is impersonating U.S. social media or other websites are inaccurate.
Facebook, which operates the world’s No. 1 Internet social network with 1.2 billion users, declined to comment beyond Zuckerberg’s post.
The question not answered in either article: How does Mark Zuckerberg have such immediate personal access to the President of the United States?
