Google co-founder Sergey Brin has called on Washington to take a stand against China's censorship of the internet, urging the US to make the issue a "high priority".

Brin, talking to the Guardian about Google's decision yesterday to lift censorship from its Chinese internet search engine, called on government and businesses to act in order to put pressure on Beijing. "I certainly hope they make it a high priority," he said. "Human rights issues deserve equal time to the trade issues that are high priority now … I hope this gets taken seriously."

The Obama administration has been playing down the growing conflict between one of America's most successful companies and the Chinese authorities, suggesting that the relationship between the two countries is "mature enough to sustain differences".

But Brin said it was vital that Obama tackled the issue – not least because the importance of the internet means that trade and censorship are inextricably linked. "Since services and information are our most successful exports, if regulations in China effectively prevent us from being competitive, then they are a trade barrier," he said.

Brin, 36, who started Google with fellow Stanford graduate Larry Page in 1998, also criticised companies that co-operate with Beijing – singling out the actions of Microsoft, which has criticised Google's approach in China.

He said that companies should think carefully about whether they are providing an ethical service to Chinese citizens and took aim at critics of Google's U-turn. Brin has admitted in the past that launching the censored service in 2006 was a mistake. "We have always opposed [censorship] but obviously we have now taken a stronger point of view," he said. "I was surprised immediately after our January announcement how much resentment there appeared to be among free marketeers.

"The notion that any company should make any sort of decision other than to maximise profit? I would hope that larger companies would not put profit ahead of all else. Generally, companies should pay attention to how and where their products are used."

A number of technology companies have been criticised over the years for their roles in helping the Chinese government censor the internet, including most notoriously Cisco – which provides some of the systems used to run the so-called Great Firewall.

Brin saved his strongest criticisms for Microsoft, which he said had capitulated to the Chinese government and trampled over human rights merely in an attempt to score points over Google.

"I'm very disappointed for them in particular," he said. "As I understand, they have effectively no market share – so they essentially spoke against freedom of speech and human rights simply in order to contradict Google."

He was referring to comments by Microsoft chairman and co-founder Bill Gates, who told American TV – shortly after the revelations that Google had been attacked by hackers based in China – that Beijing's censorship was "very limited".

"You've got to decide: do you want to obey the laws of the countries you're in or not?" Gates told ABC's Good Morning America in January. "If not, you may not end up doing business there."

Brin has long advocated lifting censorship from Google in China. He has said that his strong feelings stemmed from the fact that he was born in the Soviet Union in the 1970s and that his parents, Jewish scientists, left Moscow in 1979 after encountering widespread antisemitism. "It touches me more than other people having been born in a country that was totalitarian and having seen that for the first few years of my life," he said.

But after four years of self-censoring, Google's about-face now means that it essentially offers the same filtered service to Chinese users that it did in 2006, before it opted to comply with Beijing's wishes.

Asked whether he felt that Google had been wrong to go into China in the first place, he said: "I think it's really hard to say. I do think we helped some. "Obviously it's impossible to replace history, and we made a pretty reasonable set of decisions at the time."

He added: "I hope the political system in China evolves so that we can have more direct involvement again … I hope this leads to a path where the doors start to open more."

Indeed, Brin suggested that the more companies like Google were only accessible outside the firewall, the more pressure would grow on China.