Zuckerberg decries NSA's fake Facebook server malware

The chief executive and founder of Facebook has reacted strongly to news that the United States National Security Agency (NSA) uses faked servers purporting to belong to the social network in order to spread malware to control users' computers for mass, untargeted surveillance.

Mark Zuckerberg.

Today, Mark Zuckerberg posted an update to his Facebook page saying the internet needs to be a secure shared space for the world, that makes people stronger and safer together. 

Facebook spends a great deal of energy trying to make its services and the internet safe and secure, and Zuckerberg said he cannot understand why the US government tries to undermine that effort.

"This is why I've been so confused and frustrated by the repeated reports of the behaviour of the US government. When our engineers work tirelessly to improve security, we imagine we're protecting you against criminals, not our own government," Zuckerberg wrote.

Zuckerberg says the US government should be a champion for the internet and not a threat, and that they should be more transparent about what they're doing.

"I've called President Obama to express my frustration over the damage the government is creating for all of our future," Zuckerberg said.

The Facebook founder has previously expressed anger and outrage at government surveillance and spying on innocent internet users.

In June last year, Zuckerberg categorically denied that Facebook is part of any government mass surveillance programmes such as PRISM. He said that Facebook has not released bulk metadata to government agencies and aggressively fought back against information disclosure requests.