• NextWeb, Tuesday, May 3, 2011 10:26 AM

Though it's unlikely to deter users or advertisers in the short term, Julian Assange is railing against Facebook as the "most appalling spy machine that has ever been invented." The Wikileaks founder made the comments to Russia Today as he awaits extradition to Sweden on sexual assault charges.

"According to Assange," notes The Next Web, "it doesn't stop with Facebook. He believes the social network is joined by Google, Yahoo and other major US organizations that have 'built in interfaces for US Intelligence.'" Said Assange: "It's not a matter of serving a subpoena, they have an interface they have developed for US Intelligence to use. Now, is the case that Facebook is run by US Intelligence? No, it's not like that. It's simply that US Intelligence is able to bring to bear legal and political pressure to them."

The Wikileaks founder goes on to warns Facebook users that if they add their friend to Facebook they are "doing free work for US Intelligence agencies, in building this electronic database for them."

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