Google co-founder Sergey Brin said the principles of openness and universal access that underpinned the Internet’s creation are facing their greatest-ever threat, in an interview published by Britain’s Guardian newspaper.
Brin said factors such as the entertainment industry’s crack down on piracy, the rise of “restrictive” walled gardens such as Facebook and Apple and increasing efforts by governments to control access and communication by their citizens are major threats to the freedom of the Internet.
“There are very powerful forces that have lined up against the open Internet on all sides and around the world,” Brin was quoted as saying. “I am more worried than I have been in the past. It’s scary.”
He said he was concerned by the efforts of countries such as China, Saudi Arabia and Iran to censor the Internet.
Brin also believes that Facebook and Apple, which control users access to their own proprietary platforms, risk stifling innovation and balkanising the web.
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