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Stephen Conroy: Who do you want in charge of the internet – Facebook or me?

Media minister Stephen Conroy has turned his fire on Facebook, suggesting that he is better placed to protect internet users than the social networking site. He also said that Google’s boss is “creepy”.  

His comments came at a Senate estimates hearing last night.

Conroy has been the main driving force betwen the Government’s plans to create an internet filter in a bid to keep unacceptable online content out of Australia.

Conroy, quoted in today’s Sydney Morning Herald, told the hearing:

‘What would you prefer?’ A corporate giant who is answerable to no one and motivated solely by profit making the rules on the internet, or a democratically elected government with all the checks and balances in place?”

And he added:

”Facebook has also shown a complete disregard for users’ privacy lately. Facebook, I understand … was developed by Harvard University student Mark Zuckerberg, who after breaking up with his girlfriend developed a website of all the photos from his yearbook so he and his mates could rank the girls according to their looks. An auspicious start for Facebook.”

Meanwhile, Zuckerberg has acknowledged that the company has “made a bunch of mistakes” on privacy. In an email to the Scobleizer blog, he said that the company would start demonstrating changes it was making later this week.

Recent days has seen Facebook come under renewed fire for its byzantine privacy settings.

Update: According to The ABC, during the same session, Conroy also attacked Google over its recent admission that its Street View photography cars had  captured public wifi data.

Conroy told the hearing: “This is probably the single greatest breach in the history of privacy.”

And attacking Google CEO Eric Schmidt, he said: “I think that the approach taken by Mr Schmidt is a bit creepy, frankly. When it comes to their attitude to their own censorship, their response is simply, ‘trust us’. That is what they actually state on their website: ‘Trust us’.”

A spokesman for Google told Mumbrella: “We were surprised to hear more discussion about Google and Facebook than about the actual proposed filter.”

Mumbrella adds:

As a helpful service to Senator Conroy, we’re providing this poll so he can answer his question. We’ll update the result later today:

[SURVEYS 4]

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