The Guardian reported last night that the National Security Agency has been collecting phone records from millions of Verizon customers in the United States. The morning after the news broke, frustrated customers are overrunning the Verizon Wireless Facebook page -- some even threatening to quit the company completely.
In response to one Facebook post from a few days ago encouraging customers to "share the pledge" to stop texting and driving, there are now dozens of comments complaining about the NSA news:
Some customers responded in a similar fashion to the company's recent posts on Twitter.
While Verizon is the only company specifically named in The Guardian report, AT&T, another major U.S. carrier, is starting to receive similar negative feedback from its customers on Facebook:
However, not all reactions were critical. Some noted that Verizon had little choice but to comply with the legal order from the government agency. One customer noted that "Verizon's hands are tied." Verizon seems to be taking this stance as well, with one internal memo from the company telling employees that must comply with the federal government.
Verizon appears limited in its ability to directly respond to customers frustrated by the issue. As The Guardian points out in its report, "The court order expressly bars Verizon from disclosing to the public either the existence of the FBI's request for its customers' records, or the court order itself."
Verizon and AT&T did not immediately respond to our requests for comment.