Zuckerberg Says The “Government Blew It” On The NSA Scandal

“I think the government blew it,” Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg bluntly said about the NSA scandal today at TechCrunch Disrupt.

“We take our role very seriously,” he said. “It’s our job to protect everyone who uses Facebook. It’s our government’s job to protect all of us, our freedom and the economy. They did a bad job at balancing this.”

Zuckerberg said he believes people deserve to know more about government programs and said Facebook is pushing for more transparency. He took issue with the U.S. government’s response to the initial NSA leaks, saying the government wasn’t spying on American citizens.

“Oh that’s really gonna help companies that are trying to serve people around the world,” Zuckerberg cracked. “I think that was really bad.”

The young CEO said that Facebook has received about 9,000 requests from the NSA in the last half year, and said he is frustrated that they aren’t allowed to publicly disclose how many of those requests are granted.