Google has launched a new project to get web citizens thinking about and protecting the open internet.
The push comes ahead of a meeting of the International Telecommunication Union on December 3, where Google reckons "some governments want to use this meeting… to increase censorship and regulate the internet".
The web giant's Take Action microsite explains. "A free and open world depends on a free and open Internet.
"Governments alone, working behind closed doors, should not direct its future. The billions of people around the globe who use the Internet should have a voice."
Regulate the net
Google has long championed the open internet, free of too much legal regulation as well as speaking out against "walled gardens" championed by the likes of Apple.
Back in April, Google co-founder Sergey Brin explained that the open web is the reason Google became the gigantic web behemoth that it is today.
"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," he said.
The microsite serves more to educate the average web user than do anything else, but you can add a pledge of support that might one day become useful in some way, who knows.
You'll be joining other stalwarts of the open web like web-father Sir Tim Berners-Lee, UK prime minister David Cameron and the Internet Association comprised of Facebook, Amazon, eBay and more major web companies.
