WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has called Facebook a “spying machine”, suggesting that governments use the social networking giant to keep watch over their citizens.
Assange, the controversial founder of WikiLeaks, accused Facebook of being the “most appalling spying machine that has ever been invented.”
Speaking to a Russian news channel, Assange said that US intelligence agencies have a purpose-built interface to collect data from Facebook and other social media sites.
“Here we have the world’s most comprehensive database about people – their relationships, their names, their addresses, their locations and the communications with each other, their relatives – all sitting within the United States, all accessible to U.S. intelligence,” Assange said.
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“Facebook, Google, Yahoo… All these major US organizations have built-in interfaces for US intelligence.”
Assange continued that this “spying” is carried out as a matter of course.
“It’s not a matter of serving a subpoena. They have an interface that they have developed for US intelligence to use,” he said.
According to the WikiLeaks head, signing up to Facebook is playing into the hands of Big Brother.
“Everyone should understand that when they add their friends to Facebook, they are doing free work for United States intelligence agencies in building this database for them,” Assange said.
Assange also spoke out on the Russian news channel to say that be believes “nearly every war” in the last half-century was caused by “media lies”.
Assange is currently awaiting extradition to Sweden where he is accused of sexually assaulting two Swedish women. He is appealing the extradition and claims that the charges are politically motivated attacks on WikiLeaks.
Julian Assange will appear the High Court in London from July 12-13.
