Sergey Brin: Apple, Facebook Comments ‘Distorted’

Google co-founder Sergey Brin has taken to Google+ to vent some frustration at a Guardian article that indicated he had some bad words to say about the “walled gardens” of companies like Apple and Facebook.

Brin said his “thoughts got particularly distorted in the secondary coverage in a way that distracts from my central tenets”. In particular, Brin was not happy with the way the Guardian piece indicated he believed walled garden approaches of Apple and Facebook were as much of a threat to the Internet as government censorship was.

Clarification

“In the interview came the subject of digital ecosystems that are not as open as the web itself and I think this portion has led to some misunderstanding of my views. So to clarify, I certainly do not think this issue is on a par with government based censorship,” Brin said.

“Moreover, I have much admiration for two of the companies we discussed – Apple and Facebook. I have always admired Apple’s products. In fact, I am writing this post on an Imac and using an Apple keyboard I have cherished for the past seven years. Likewise, Facebook has helped to connect hundreds of millions of people, has been a key tool for political expression and has been instrumental to the Arab Spring. Both have made key contributions to the free flow of information around the world.”

He was in especially deferential mood, adding that Google could improve in a number of areas when it comes to openness on the web.

Brin sought to outline his key message that “the primary threat by far to internet freedom is government filtering of political dissent”

“This has been far more effective than I ever imagined possible across a number of nations. In addition, other countries such as the US have come close to adopting very similar techniques in order to combat piracy and other vices. I believe these efforts have been misguided and dangerous,” he added.

“Regardless of how you feel about digital ecosystems or about Google, please do not take the free and open internet for granted from government intervention.”

Google has been panned for various reasons in 2012. When the company announced it was going to roll all of its various privacy policies into one document, it caused a furore, resulting in claims that the company had breached EU law.

Just earlier this week, the company was fined $25,000 by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for wrongly collecting payload data during its Street View rounds.

Ironically, Brin’s comments come as a cross-party group of British MPs has called for service providers to censor the Internet by default, to protect children from adult content.

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