Zuckerberg on Apple: 'We believe in encryption'

BARCELONA — Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg publicly voiced support for Apple in its fight with the FBI over a terrorist's iPhone, rejecting the idea that technology companies should create "backdoors" for intelligence agencies and law enforcement.

"We’re sympathetic with Apple. We believe in encryption; we think that that’s an important tool," Zuckerberg said on stage at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

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"I don’t think requiring backdoors with encryption is either going to be an effective way to increase security or is really the right thing to do for just the direction that the world is going to," Zuckerberg said.

Zuckerberg also spoke of the "pretty big responsibility" Facebook has to "help prevent terrorism and different kinds of attacks."

"If there is any content that is promoting terrorism or sympathizing with ISIS we’ll take that off the service," he said in an interview with journalist Jessi Hempel.

"We don’t want people doing that kind of stuff on Facebook. If we have opportunities to basically work with governments and folks to make sure that there aren’t terrorist attacks then we’re going to take those opportunities and we feel a pretty strong responsibility to help make sure that society is safe," Zuckerberg said.

"We care about that. That’s a big deal. We take that seriously."

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A federal judge ordered Apple last week to bypass security functions on the iPhone used by Syed Rizwan Farook, igniting a public fight between the Obama administration and Apple, with the world's most valuable company declaring it would not comply with the order to hack into the phone.

The U.S. technology industry has lined up behind Apple over its refusal to help the FBI break into the iPhone used by Farook, one of the assailants in the December mass shootings in San Bernardino, Calif., that killed 14 people.

Analysts have noted that the statements of support from tech companies have been guarded. Google and Facebook last week voiced public support for Apple more forcefully and swiftly than Microsoft, Yahoo and Twitter.

Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google, was the first head of a major tech company to side with Apple, saying in a series of tweets on Wednesday that "forcing companies to enable hacking could compromise users’ privacy" and would set a "troubling precedent."

Facebook followed with more forceful language on Thursday, warning of a "chilling precedent" and pledging to "fight aggressively" against government efforts to "weaken the security" of consumer tech products.