Web freedom faces greatest threat ever, warns Google's Sergey Brin. The principles of openness and universal access that underpinned the creation of the internet three decades ago are under greater threat than ever, according to Google co-founder Sergey Brin. In an interview with the Guardian, Brin warned there were "very powerful forces that have lined up against the open internet on all sides and around the world". "I am more worried than I have been in the past," he said. "It's scary. " The threat to the freedom of the internet comes, he claims, from a combination of governments increasingly trying to control access and communication by their citizens, the entertainment industry's attempts to crack down on piracy, and the rise of "restrictive" walled gardens such as Facebook and Apple, which tightly control what software can be released on their platforms.
Revealed: US and China's cyber war gamesWashington's plan to beat web censorsChina struggle to regain control of the internetHow open is your internet? An interactive map. Good for Google=Good for web ? Why aren't you leading it? Google wouldn't exist if FB had been dominated the Internet. Google would not have been able to develop its search engine if the Internet had been dominated by Facebook, the company’s founder Sergey Brin said in an exclusive interview with The Guardian.
While several of his negative comments focused on the social networking company in the wake of its recent IPO, he actually showed more general preoccupation with web freedom. It is under threat for several reasons, he said. On one hand, authoritarian countries such as China and Iran are trying to control the Internet. On the other hand, the film and music industries are calling for restrictive legislation in the US.
More generally, several tech corporations are challenging the web as we know it; according to Brin, walled gardens represent a serious menace to the open web. “There’s a lot to be lost [with walled gardens]. This led him to wonder whether or not it would be possible to create a company such as Google in the new online environment that is emerging: Facebook and Apple a threat to Internet freedom. In an interview with the Guardian, Google co-founder Sergey Brin warned that the "open" Internet is in danger from very powerful forces, including Facebook and Apple. "I am more worried than I have been in the past ... it's scary," he said Brin identified the serious threats to the open Internet as repressive governments trying to control access to the Internet, entertainment industry crackdowns on piracy and so-called "wall gardens" that maintain more strict control over what can be done on their technology platforms, citing Facebook and Apple.
He said that Facebook and Apple are stifling innovation and risk Balkanizing the Web, and went as far as to say that Google would never have come into existence if Facebook were dominant. "You have to play by their rules, which are really restrictive. The kind of environment that we developed Google in, the reason that we were able to develop a search engine, is the web was so open. Once you get too many rules that will stifle innovation. "