WikiLeaks Founder Julian Assange Blasts Facebook as 'Most Appalling Spy Machine'

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange walks out of British prison after the High Court upheld a lower decision to release the investigative journalist. Wearing a tether, he must report to police daily., a photo by Pan-African News Wire File Photos on Flickr.

WikiLeaks Founder Assange Blasts
Facebook as 'Most Appalling Spying Machine'

Published May 03, 2011 | NewsCore

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange blasted Facebook, calling it the "most appalling spying machine that has ever been invented," Russia Today reported Tuesday.

Assange, who is currently fighting extradition to Sweden from the U.K., claimed on the Russian news channel that the social networking site was used by the U.S. government to spy on its citizens.

"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," he said. "Facebook, Google, Yahoo -- all these major U.S. organizations have built-in interfaces for U.S. intelligence."

Assange added, "It's not a matter of serving a subpoena. They have an interface that they have developed for U.S. intelligence to use."

He also claimed that people using Facebook were helping U.S. intelligence operatives.

"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 also addressed WikiLeaks' latest disclosures about Guantanamo Bay being used to incarcerate dozens of terrorists who admitted plotting attacks against the West.

"You know it has been a haven for terrorists, and it is certainly a haven for oligarchs and former regime dictators that have come here," he said.

Assange also slammed the media for distorting information and spoke out on politics in the Middle East and North Africa and fighting his extradition to Sweden.

A judge ruled in February that Assange should be extradited to Sweden where he is accused of sexually assaulting one Swedish woman and raping another during a visit to Stockholm last August.

Assange denied the accusations and said the charges were politically motivated.

He will appeal against a British judge's decision to extradite him to Sweden in a hearing at the High Court in London from July 12-13.