Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg lashed out at the U.S. government on Wednesday, saying that authorities have hurt Silicon Valley companies by doing a poor job of explaining the online spying efforts of U.S. intelligence agencies.

“Frankly I think the government blew it,” Zuckerberg complained during an onstage interview at the tech industry conference known as Disrupt, a weeklong event where Yahoo (YHOO) CEO Marissa Mayer and other prominent tech executives also spoke out publicly and expressed frustration in person, for the first time, since a series of news leaks revealed the government’s controversial surveillance programs.

“It’s our government’s job to protect all of us and also protect our freedoms and also protect the economy,” Zuckerberg told interviewer Michael Arrington, “and I think they did a bad job of balancing those things.”