Zuckerberg Releases Statement Calling PRISM Charges "Outrageous"

Mark Zuckerberg took to his personal Facebook account today to address charges that his company has cooperated with a secret NSA program called PRISM that monitors private citizens' internet activities. Zuckerberg called the press reports about PRISM "outrageous," and said Facebook has never given the U.S. government direct access to its servers (though, as Buzzfeed's John Herrman notes, "a lack of 'direct access' does not preclude the type of sweeping surveillance described in the leaks").

Upon the release of Zuckerberg's statement, which came shortly after Google CEO Larry Page and Google Chief Legal Officer David Drummond released their own statement, some couldn't help but notice the similarities between Zuckerberg's words and Google's words.

Here's a Google doc with the Page and Zuckerberg denials: docs.google.com/document/d/1mv… Similar passages are bolded.

— Alexis C. Madrigal (@alexismadrigal) June 7, 2013

The overlaps in language will probably lead some conspiracy theorists to presume the world's huge internet companies are in cahoots to keep the truth from the people. That's a possibility. But the likelier explanation is that the highly paid attorneys at tech companies whose job it is to draft these kinds of things are of a similar mind on how to elegantly dodge serious questions from the public.

[Image via AP]