Sergey Brin: “I’m worried about the Internet”

Internet has been running around with a rough crowd, smoking cigarettes, sassing teachers.

Google co-founder Sergey Brin said that the Internet as we know it is in peril. In an interview in London’s Guardian newspaper, Brin said that the biggest threat right now is governments such as China and Saudi Arabia trying to control the free flow of information online, although he warned that Facebook and Apple, running their own proprietary systems, also restrict users. Also, he said, the entertainment industry’s efforts to enforce copyright are having a chilling effect.

From The Guardian:

Brin said he and co-founder Larry Page would not have been able to create Google if the internet was dominated by Facebook. “You have to play by their rules, which are really restrictive,” he said. “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.”
He criticised Facebook for not making it easy for users to switch their data to other services. “Facebook has been sucking down Gmail contacts for many years,” he said.