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Sergey Brin says secondary reporting 'distorted' internet threat comments

Sergey Brin says secondary reporting 'distorted' internet threat comments

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Sergey Brin has distanced himself from reports that he sees the walled garden systems of Apple and Facebook as as great a threat as governmental censorship.

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Sergey Brin has taken to Google+ today to distance himself from reports earlier this week that he believes internet walled gardens are on a par with governmental censorship. Brin explains that his words have been misconstrued by secondary reporting, and that in an interview with British newspaper The Guardian he discussed the role of digital ecosystems in the modern web. "You have to play by their rules, which are really restrictive," Brin said, referring to walled garden ecosystems like Facebook. "Once you get too many rules, that will stifle innovation."

In his Google+ post, Brin comments that he has "much admiration" for Facebook and Apple, despite his criticisms, and that he wrote the post on an iMac while using an Apple keyboard that he has "cherished for the past seven years." He also notes the role that Facebook played in the Arab Spring.

However, this isn't a full retraction — Brin reiterates that without openness, the web would not exist as it does today, and that starting a service like Yahoo, PayPal, or Google "would entail navigating a number of new tollbooths and gatekeepers."