Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has criticized the U.S. government over its handling of the PRISM controversy, Digital Spy said.

The social network's co-founder believes that the Obama administration "blew it" when it came to explaining the contentious surveillance programme to the public.

"Frankly, I think the government blew it. It's our government's job to protect all of us and also protect our freedoms and protect the economy and companies, and I think they did a bad job of balancing those things," Zuckerberg said at the TechCrunch Disrupt conference.

"They blew it on communicating the balance of what they were going for."

Zuckerberg also revealed that Facebook has joined the growing list of tech companies lobbying the government for the right to publish specific details of the data requests it has received.

Word of the PRISM programme, which grants government agencies access to citizens' phone and internet data, emerged when former CIA worker Edward Snowden leaked details of it to the press.

There have been numerous leaks since the initial revelations, the latest suggesting that the authorities have full access to Android, iPhone, and BlackBerry handsets.