Earlier this week, Google released a white paper on trade and the Internet: "Enabling Trade in the Era of Information Technologies: Breaking Down Barriers to the Free Flow of Information." 

We tend to think of information freedom in human rights terms (or at least I have), but Google makes an interesting case for it being about free trade as well, and calls on policymakers in the U.S. and other countries to do more to fold the concept of an unfettered Internet into World Trade Organization rules and bilateral trade agreements.

Google calls the regulation of information by some countries a trade barrier of the 21st century:

Limitations on the free flow of information and restrictive Internet regulations are a clear threat to open markets and trade.  Governments that limit or block the flow of information threaten not only the ability of companies to access and compete in their markets, but also threaten the very traits of the Internet that have made it into an engine of economic growth and put at risk the ability of the Internet-related business to continue expanding their exports, employment, and innovation.

If any progress is made in the WTO's Doha Round, or in the Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations, it will be interesting to see if any of Google's ideas are included.