In an exclusive interview published in the U. K.'s Guardian newspaper on Sunday, Google co-founder Sergey Brin said that the Web environment had become ‘restrictive’ in the present times; and added that it was essentially the ‘Open Web’ of the past which had facilitated the creation of the Google search engine.

Noting that the creation of Google came at a time when most of the Web’s information was open and available to all those who were willing to seize it, Brin said that ‘Open Web’ is now being threatened by Facebook, Apple, China, government censors, and legislations like the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA).

Pointing out that measures like government censorship and interception of data, over-obsessive efforts aimed at protecting intellectual property, and new communication portals which use web technologies and the Internet under restrictive corporate control were among the wide array of attacks on “the open internet,” Brin said that "very powerful forces that have lined up against the open Internet on all sides and around the world."

Brin also told the newspaper that, in his opinion, the creation of Google – the Internet search giant co-founded by Brin and the current Google CEO Larry Page – would probably have been impossible in the present-day Web environment.

Further adding that it was the openness of the Web supported the creation of Google as it provided the right kind of environment for developing the search engine, Brin unloaded on the restrictive measures of today and said: “Once you get too many rules, that will stifle innovation.”