Facebook founder, Mark Zuckerberg has spoken out at the G8 summit on the importance of keeping the Internet free from regulation as well as calling for greater investment in high-speed technology.

Addressing leaders of the eight industrialised nations Zuckerberg discussed future plans for the Internet as well as criticising regimes that limited Internet access, describing these moves as a ‘terrible mistake’.

Alongside other key figures from the web including Google’s chairman Eric Schmidt, founder of Amazon Jeff Bezos, and representatives from Microsoft the group spoke out against ‘premature regulation’ and reforms to pricing around bandwidth, insisting that passing on higher prices could stunt the ability of the Internet to fuel economic growth.

With the Internet flourishing naturally and without government intervention is there really any argument for regulation now?

LinkedIn, which floated for the first time on the stock market yesterday, took just hours to prove the hype around social networking is economic as well as social, and it’s here to stay. With stocks more than doubling from the initial price of $45 up to $122 in just four hours LinkedIn is certainly a social media site to watch.