'So frankly, I think the government blew it,' Zuckerberg said. | REUTERS Zuckerberg: Blown response on NSA

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said Wednesday that the government “blew it” when it came to initially communicating about its surveillance programs and did not help American Internet firms trying to do business globally.

While speaking at TechCrunch’s Disrupt event in San Francisco, Zuckerberg emphasized that it is his job “and our job to protect everyone who uses Facebook and all the information they share with us.” He said the government response put U.S. tech firms doing business overseas in a tough spot.


“It’s our government’s job to protect all of us and also to protect our freedoms and protect our economy … and companies,” he added. “And I think they did a bad job of balancing those things here. … So frankly, I think the government blew it. They blew it on communicating the balance of what they were going for here with this.”

The White House has defended the National Security Agency programs, and President Barack Obama has noted that they include many checks and balances while only seeking targeted information.

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Recently, the administration has taken steps to provide more transparency, convening a group of experts to review intelligence gathering and promising an annual summary of orders under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. The administration this week also released previously secret legal filings and court opinions related to the surveillance programs.

But Zuckerberg appeared to be noting the government’s initial steps when the NSA story first broke after revelations by leaker Edward Snowden.

“The morning after this started breaking, a bunch of people asked them what they thought,” he said. “And the government’s comment was, ‘Oh don’t worry, basically we’re not spying on any Americans.’ Oh, wonderful, that’s really helpful to companies who are trying to serve people around the world and really going to inspire confidence in American Internet companies. Thanks for going out there and being clear about what you are doing. I think that was really bad.”

Zuckerberg emphasized his belief that his company’s effort to push for more transparency “has made a big difference.” The government permitted some companies to release aggregate information on surveillance requests for user data — but only if it is combined with state, local and other federal inquiries.

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This week, Facebook and Yahoo joined Microsoft and Google in suing the government for permission to release more information about the number of national security requests they receive.

“We’re not at the end of this,” Zuckerberg said. “I wish the government were more proactive about communicating. We’re not psyched that we had to sue and we take this really seriously.”

Zuckerberg will be in Washington next week to speak with the top four House Republicans. He will meet next Thursday with Speaker John Boehner and the rest of his leadership team, including House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.), Whip Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and Conference Chairwoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.).

The meeting is expected to be a broad discussion of issues related to Facebook, according to a GOP aide.

Facebook did not immediately respond to a request for comment about Zuckerberg’s D.C. trip.

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Earlier at Wednesday’s San Francisco event, Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer said that for her company “it’s really about protecting our users, for our users to understand what is happening on our site, what is happening broadly across the industry and really how at risks their data are, which is why we released our first transparency report on Friday.”

She said the company would not talk about NSA specifics because “releasing classified information is treason.”

“We actually think that it makes more sense in terms of scrutinizing requests, analyzing them, doing our best to protect our users, that it makes sense for us to work within the system,” she said.

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