Google co-founder says 'Internet freedom facing greatest threat than ever'

London - Search giant Google's co-founder Sergey Brin has warned that the principles of openness and universal access that underpinned the creation of the Internet three  decades ago are under greater threat than ever.

During an interview with The Guardian, Brin said 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. It's scary," the paper quoted him, as saying.

Brin stressed that the threat to Internet freedom comes 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.

He expressed more concern over efforts of countries such as China, Saudi Arabia and Iran to censor and restrict the use of the Internet.

Brin, however, 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.

According to the paper, he also slammed 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," Brin said.