Web freedom faces greatest threat ever, says Google

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.

Brin warned there were 'very powerful forces that have lined up against the open internet on all sides and around the world'. 'I'm more worried than I have been in the past,' he said.

The threat to the freedom of the internet comes, he claims, from a combination of governments 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 control what software can be released on their platforms.

The 38-year-old billionaire, whose family fled antisemitism in the Soviet Union, was widely regarded as having been the driving force behind Google's partial pullout from China in 2010 over concerns about censorship and cyber-attacks. He said five years ago he did not believe China or any country could effectively restrict the internet for long, but now says he has been proven wrong. 'I thought there was no way to put the genie back in the bottle, but now it seems in certain areas the genie has been put back in the bottle,' he said.

He said he was most concerned by the efforts of countries like China, Saudi Arabia and Iran to censor and restrict use of the internet, but warned that the rise of Facebook and Apple, which have their own risked stifling innovation and balkanising the web.