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Web freedom faces greatest threat ever, warns Google's Sergey Brin
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Nar Gilah
Apr 16, 2012, 10:04:00 AM4/16/12
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Web freedom faces greatest threat ever, warns Google's Sergey Brin
Ian Katz
guardian.co.uk, Sunday 15 April 2012 13.07 EDT
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2012/apr/15/web-freedom-threat-
google-brin
Sergey Brin says he and Google co-founder Larry Page would not have
been able to create their search giant if the internet was dominated by
Facebook.
The principles of openness and universal access that underpinned the
creation of the [69]internet three decades ago are under greater threat
than ever, according to Google co-founder [70]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.
The 38-year-old billionaire, whose family fled antisemitism in the
Soviet Union, was widely regarded as having been the driving force
behind [76]Google's partial pullout from China in 2010 over concerns
about [77]censorship and cyber-attacks. He said five years ago he did
not believe [78]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 such as
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 proprietary platforms and control access to their users,
risked stifling innovation and balkanising the web.
"There's a lot to be lost," he said. "For example, all the information
in apps – that data is not crawlable by web crawlers. You can't search
it."
Brin's criticism of Facebook is likely to be controversial, with the
social network [79]approaching an estimated $100bn (£64bn) flotation.
Google's upstart rival has seen explosive growth: it has signed up half
of Americans with computer access and more than 800 million members
worldwide.
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.
Brin's comments come on the first day of a week-long Guardian
investigation of the [80]intensifying battle for control of the
internet being fought across the globe between governments, companies,
military strategists, activists and hackers.
From the attempts made by Hollywood to push through legislation
allowing pirate websites to be shut down, to the British government's
plans to monitor social media and web use, the ethos of openness
championed by the pioneers of the internet and worldwide web is being
challenged on a number of fronts.
In China, which now has more internet users than any other country, the
government recently introduced new "real identity" rules in a bid to
tame the boisterous microblogging scene. In Russia, there are
[81]powerful calls to rein in a blogosphere blamed for fomenting a wave
of anti-Vladimir Putin protests. It has been reported that Iran is
planning to introduce a sealed "national internet" from this summer.
Ricken Patel, co-founder of Avaaz, the 14 million-strong online
activist network which has been providing communication equipment and
training to Syrian activists, echoed Brin's warning: "We've seen a
massive attack on the freedom of the web. Governments are realising the
power of this medium to organise people and they are trying to clamp
down across the world, not just in places like China and North Korea;
we're seeing bills in the United States, in Italy, all across the
world."
Writing in the Guardian on Monday, outspoken Chinese artist and
activist Ai Weiwei says the Chinese government's attempts to control
the internet will ultimately be doomed to failure. "In the long run,"
he says, "they must understand it's not possible for them to control
the internet unless they shut it off – and they can't live with the
consequences of that."
Amid mounting concern over the militarisation of the internet and
claims – denied by Beijing – that China has mounted numerous
cyber-attacks on US military and corporate targets, he said it would be
hugely difficult for any government to defend its online "territory".
"If you compare the internet to the physical world, there really aren't
any walls between countries," he said. "If Canada wanted to send tanks
into the US there is nothing stopping them and it's the same on the
internet. It's hopeless to try to control the internet."
He reserved his harshest words for the entertainment industry, which he
said was "shooting itself in the foot, or maybe worse than in the foot"
by lobbying for legislation to block sites offering pirate material.
He said the [82]Sopa and [83]Pipa bills championed by the film and
music industries would have led to the US using the same technology and
approach it criticised China and Iran for using. The entertainment
industry failed to appreciate people would continue to download pirated
content as long as it was easier to acquire and use than legitimately
obtained material, he said.
"I haven't tried it for many years but when you go on a pirate website,
you choose what you like; it downloads to the device of your choice and
it will just work – and then when you have to jump through all these
hoops [to buy legitimate content], the walls created are disincentives
for people to buy," he said.
Brin acknowledged that some people were anxious about the amount of
their data that was now in the reach of US authorities because it sits
on Google's servers. He said the company was periodically forced to
hand over data and sometimes prevented by legal restrictions from even
notifying users that it had done so.
He said: "We push back a lot; we are able to turn down a lot of these
requests. We do everything possible to protect the data. If we could
wave a magic wand and not be subject to US law, that would be great. If
we could be in some magical jurisdiction that everyone in the world
trusted, that would be great … We're doing it as well as can be done."
• Explore the seven-day special series on the [84]Battle for the
internet
69. http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/internet
70. http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/sergeybrin
71. http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/series/battle-for-the-internet
72. http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2012/apr/16/us-china-cyber-war-
games
73. http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2012/apr/15/commotion-wireless-
new-america-foundation
74. http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2012/apr/16/internet-china-
censorship-weibo-microblogs
75. http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/datablog/interactive/2012/
apr/16/web-filtering-censorship
76. http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2010/mar/23/google-china-
censorship-hong-kong
77. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/censorship
78. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/china
79. http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2012/feb/02/facebook-100bn-
stock-market-flotation
80. http://gu.com/p/36pma
81. http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2012/apr/15/kremlin-purge-
russia-internet-western-influences
82. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/interactive/2011/dec/23/sopa-stop-
online-piracy-act
83. http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2012/jan/20/pipa-vote-shelved-
harry-reid
84. http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/series/battle-for-the-internet
Ian Katz
guardian.co.uk, Sunday 15 April 2012 13.07 EDT
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2012/apr/15/web-freedom-threat-
google-brin
Sergey Brin says he and Google co-founder Larry Page would not have
been able to create their search giant if the internet was dominated by
Facebook.
The principles of openness and universal access that underpinned the
creation of the [69]internet three decades ago are under greater threat
than ever, according to Google co-founder [70]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.
The 38-year-old billionaire, whose family fled antisemitism in the
Soviet Union, was widely regarded as having been the driving force
behind [76]Google's partial pullout from China in 2010 over concerns
about [77]censorship and cyber-attacks. He said five years ago he did
not believe [78]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 such as
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 proprietary platforms and control access to their users,
risked stifling innovation and balkanising the web.
"There's a lot to be lost," he said. "For example, all the information
in apps – that data is not crawlable by web crawlers. You can't search
it."
Brin's criticism of Facebook is likely to be controversial, with the
social network [79]approaching an estimated $100bn (£64bn) flotation.
Google's upstart rival has seen explosive growth: it has signed up half
of Americans with computer access and more than 800 million members
worldwide.
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.
Brin's comments come on the first day of a week-long Guardian
investigation of the [80]intensifying battle for control of the
internet being fought across the globe between governments, companies,
military strategists, activists and hackers.
From the attempts made by Hollywood to push through legislation
allowing pirate websites to be shut down, to the British government's
plans to monitor social media and web use, the ethos of openness
championed by the pioneers of the internet and worldwide web is being
challenged on a number of fronts.
In China, which now has more internet users than any other country, the
government recently introduced new "real identity" rules in a bid to
tame the boisterous microblogging scene. In Russia, there are
[81]powerful calls to rein in a blogosphere blamed for fomenting a wave
of anti-Vladimir Putin protests. It has been reported that Iran is
planning to introduce a sealed "national internet" from this summer.
Ricken Patel, co-founder of Avaaz, the 14 million-strong online
activist network which has been providing communication equipment and
training to Syrian activists, echoed Brin's warning: "We've seen a
massive attack on the freedom of the web. Governments are realising the
power of this medium to organise people and they are trying to clamp
down across the world, not just in places like China and North Korea;
we're seeing bills in the United States, in Italy, all across the
world."
Writing in the Guardian on Monday, outspoken Chinese artist and
activist Ai Weiwei says the Chinese government's attempts to control
the internet will ultimately be doomed to failure. "In the long run,"
he says, "they must understand it's not possible for them to control
the internet unless they shut it off – and they can't live with the
consequences of that."
Amid mounting concern over the militarisation of the internet and
claims – denied by Beijing – that China has mounted numerous
cyber-attacks on US military and corporate targets, he said it would be
hugely difficult for any government to defend its online "territory".
"If you compare the internet to the physical world, there really aren't
any walls between countries," he said. "If Canada wanted to send tanks
into the US there is nothing stopping them and it's the same on the
internet. It's hopeless to try to control the internet."
He reserved his harshest words for the entertainment industry, which he
said was "shooting itself in the foot, or maybe worse than in the foot"
by lobbying for legislation to block sites offering pirate material.
He said the [82]Sopa and [83]Pipa bills championed by the film and
music industries would have led to the US using the same technology and
approach it criticised China and Iran for using. The entertainment
industry failed to appreciate people would continue to download pirated
content as long as it was easier to acquire and use than legitimately
obtained material, he said.
"I haven't tried it for many years but when you go on a pirate website,
you choose what you like; it downloads to the device of your choice and
it will just work – and then when you have to jump through all these
hoops [to buy legitimate content], the walls created are disincentives
for people to buy," he said.
Brin acknowledged that some people were anxious about the amount of
their data that was now in the reach of US authorities because it sits
on Google's servers. He said the company was periodically forced to
hand over data and sometimes prevented by legal restrictions from even
notifying users that it had done so.
He said: "We push back a lot; we are able to turn down a lot of these
requests. We do everything possible to protect the data. If we could
wave a magic wand and not be subject to US law, that would be great. If
we could be in some magical jurisdiction that everyone in the world
trusted, that would be great … We're doing it as well as can be done."
• Explore the seven-day special series on the [84]Battle for the
internet
69. http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/internet
70. http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/sergeybrin
71. http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/series/battle-for-the-internet
72. http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2012/apr/16/us-china-cyber-war-
games
73. http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2012/apr/15/commotion-wireless-
new-america-foundation
74. http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2012/apr/16/internet-china-
censorship-weibo-microblogs
75. http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/datablog/interactive/2012/
apr/16/web-filtering-censorship
76. http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2010/mar/23/google-china-
censorship-hong-kong
77. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/censorship
78. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/china
79. http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2012/feb/02/facebook-100bn-
stock-market-flotation
80. http://gu.com/p/36pma
81. http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2012/apr/15/kremlin-purge-
russia-internet-western-influences
82. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/interactive/2011/dec/23/sopa-stop-
online-piracy-act
83. http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2012/jan/20/pipa-vote-shelved-
harry-reid
84. http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/series/battle-for-the-internet
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