Facebook, Apple greatest threats to web freedom : Sergey Brin

[DeSmOnD dAvId]

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.

Source

I personally find his comments a little more than a rant. Considering that Facebook is the main competitor to Google+ and Apple's iOS is the main competitor to Android. Though it is true that Facebook is quite rigid and closed and apple is dictatorial WRT apps for the iOS, but so is Google, when it forced android developers to use Google Checkout.

The article further says:

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."

and...

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."

So, does he have a point or is it just a pointless rant?

Edit:Another Source

[eggman]

He's not entirely wrong.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg supports CISPA? (updated with video)

[rhitwick]

"Hell, there are no rules here - we're trying to accomplish something."
Thomas A. Edison

Why google is concerned about what FB does. There is FB...that is the reason they tried to bring a better platform than Orkut same for iOS and Android.

They are reading too many #Mamata jokes these days.

[doomgiver]

also, they forgot to include google in the list.

[DeSmOnD dAvId]

also, they forgot to include google in the list.

That's my point. He is blaming everyone, but not looking at himself and his company. Cause google, though not as closed as Facebook, still does collect information about users and does God knows what with it.
Posted via Mobile Device

[thetechfreak]

Considering how much farming of a cookie from Google.com does when its stored on your computer Google too is a threat.
Facebook takes information which the user voluntarily or involuntarily gives[since we really cannot do anything on facebook unless we are logged in]

[Champ]

Article is not about who collect how much amount of data, its user who is agreeing to give them their data (remember small check boxes that you clicked - Share location, share anonymous statics).
Your data is the only way using which a company can give you so called personalized services(read ads).
So if one is not comfortable with data sharing one should not use these sites.

Main point of Brin against Facebook calling them closed is that thay are not making that data indexable and keeping all for themselves.

And Apple for their tight controlled ecosystem and forcing things.

Although I personally dont like closed systems but in these cases both have benefited users as far as till now,

iOS has far better ecosystem in terms of app redundancy and app quality
Also I will be very uncomfortable if my 2 year old late nite facebook updates start showing in Google search results

[DeSmOnD dAvId]

I don't know, but I think Google is jealous of Facebook's popularity, which is causing them to lose advertisers to Facebook. However, I agree that oppressive censorship by governments are a detriment to web freedom.

In other words, Google is missing out on the action. That is, since everyone is voluntarily giving their info on FB and are keeping it to themselves (for God knows what purpose other than social networking), Google cannot expand its advertisement business into Facebook's domain.

[NikiNfOuR]

If this is directly meaning piracy, indians pirate most things because unavailability, huge price tag!!!

Apple has always been a closed environmented company

[$$Lionking$$]

Proprietary standards(Apple) are going to fall - Give Android/Chrome OS some more time, they have an ecosystem problem according to me. Android while being a *NIX system did to mobiles what Windows did to PC albeit being open source.

About FB - people should be migrating to Google+ soon coz they have total integrity with everything Google. Just a matter of time.

[doomgiver]

If this is directly meaning piracy, indians pirate most things because unavailability, huge price tag!!!

Apple has always been a closed environmented company

really? we pirate because of huge price tags?
then why do we buy expensive food, clothes and useless stuff no one will ever use twice? like diamond dust face creams, or dragon blood milkshakes???

[JojoTheDragon]

really? we pirate because of huge price tags?
then why do we buy expensive food, clothes and useless stuff no one will ever use twice? like diamond dust face creams, or dragon blood milkshakes???

Agreed. Piracy has nothing(almost nothing) to do with price tags. Hell, they release the games/softwares at half the price here, mostly.

[DeSmOnD dAvId]

really? we pirate because of huge price tags?
then why do we buy expensive food, clothes and useless stuff no one will ever use twice? like diamond dust face creams, or dragon blood milkshakes???

Agreed. Piracy has nothing(almost nothing) to do with price tags. Hell, they release the games/softwares at half the price here, mostly.

Well, now you can't get expensive food, clothing, etc. for free, can you? Perhaps if you shoplift then you can. So, the common mentality is that, if you can get it for free, why pay for it?

If this is directly meaning piracy, indians pirate most things because unavailability, huge price tag!!!

Apple has always been a closed environmented company

Agree to one extent. Pirated Android apps have been floating around because there is a limited payment options. Only Credit Cards and few select Debit Cards work, which not everyone has. Thus, even if you want to buy a certain app, you cannot. So, you either do without it, search for free (possibly low quality) alternatives or find a pirated version of the same and be done with it.

Proprietary standards(Apple) are going to fall - Give Android/Chrome OS some more time, they have an ecosystem problem according to me. Android while being a *NIX system did to mobiles what Windows did to PC albeit being open source.

About FB - people should be migrating to Google+ soon coz they have total integrity with everything Google. Just a matter of time.

I am not so sure, Google+ seems like Google's attempt to take back social networking supremacy that it lost to Facebook. Also, since Facebook does not display Google ads, Google cannot get a piece of that action. Indeed, it has total integration with all other Google products, but Facebook has become well established and shaking it out will be a daunting task.

As for Apple, it already apppears to nosedive since Jobs' death (God rest his soul). Indeed Android has pretty much revolutionized smartphones and being open has encouraged a huge community support, developing apps and custom ROMs to make the most of the hardware.

The iPhone, on the other hand, is a monolithic phone. It is highlighting Apple's decades old ideology of selling the hardware with the software bundled, something that led to its downfall when Windows came out.