Dubai: Google believes that global cyberspace does not need international regulations.

“We believe in free expression. We believe that the International Telecommunications Union [ITU] has expanded its reach to include the internet in the International Telecommunications Regulations [ITRs]. We believe it should not,” Bill Echikson, Head of Free Expression Policy and PR, Europe, Middle East & Africa, Google, told Gulf News. “ITU does lot of things very well. It played a crucial role in radio spectrum, satellite, etc. Internet does not need international regulations. It succeeds because it is from the bottom up and that is why internet is so powerful. He said it is a bad story actually if you look around the world. Around 42 countries now filter, block and censor content on the internet out of the 72 studied by the Open Net Initiative.”

The ITU is an agency of the United Nations.

Google operates in 150 countries. More than 30 countries block “some of our services at any given time.”

“I think the freedom of speech is facing real challenges. The Net is a force for economic growth, new forms of worker collaboration and the ways we learn and socialise,” he said.

The ITU is bringing together regulators from around the world to Dubai to renegotiate a decades-old treaty that was focused on basic telecommunications and not the internet.

“No single entity controls the internet; it is controlled by the billions of people. Governments have a role but the internet has always been an instrument of the people because it is designed to be open and free from the bottom up, not the top down,” he said.

Like Google, many countries and organisations, such as the EU, will oppose attempts to increase regulations on the internet when the World Conference on International Telecommunications (WCIT) opens in Dubai from December 3-14.

According to Google’s latest Transparency Report 2012, government demands for user data have increased steadily. In the first half of this year, there were 20,938 inquiries from government entities around the world. Those requests were for information about 34,614 accounts.

The number of government requests to remove content from Google’s services was largely flat from 2009 to 2011. But in the first half of 2012, there were 1,789 requests from government officials around the world to remove 17,746 pieces of content.

The information shows “how governments interact with the internet. Our hope is that over time, more data will bolster public debate about how we can best keep the Internet free and open,” he said.

He said the Global Network Initiative (GNI) started by Google, Microsoft, Yahoo!, civil society organisations and academics is to set common rules to how to respond to the pressure and create a collaborative approach to protect and advance freedom of expression.

“We have had problems in China and Brazil. We are willing to adapt to local culture, for instance in Germany Holocaust materials are illegal. When we got court orders we removed the content online,” he said.

More restrictions on internet “will put a brake on innovation,” Echikson said.