Mathias Döpfner, CEO of Axel Springer, a huge European multimedia company based in Germany, made a big splash this week when he wrote an open letter in a German newspaper saying that he and other European executives "are afraid of Google."

The Döpfner letter, addressed to Google's Eric Schmidt, was a response to Schmidt's own defense of his company, published a week before, which itself was a response to another German media and tech titan, Robert M. Maier, who published a critical essay called Fear of Google early in April.

What the back-and-forth comes down to is that German heads of media are calling Google out for having too much power, data, and too little respect for local business laws. For example, according to an excerpt translated from Döpfner's letter by The New York Times, Döpfner suggested that Google was working with European authorities to undermine rivals, developing a "business model that in less honorable circles would be called extortion."

Döpfner mentioned past deals and a working relationship with Schmidt, and emphasized that he and his company -- which gets 62 percent of its profits from digital -- aren't afraid of innovation or the future of media, but they are of Google. "We are afraid of Google," said Döpfner, "I must say this so clearly and honestly since scarcely one of my colleagues dares to do this publically. And as the biggest of the small fry, we must perhaps be the first to speak plainly in this debate."

Meanwhile, Google's Schmidt contends that European regulation and anti-trust rules are in danger of "creating an innovation desert in Europe" as tech companies avoid investing in countries with unfavorable media laws. "While many other European publishers including such marquee names as the Telegraph and the Guardian have signed similar [digital advertising] partnerships," wrote Schmidt in his essay published in Germany's FAZ," some publishers in Europe still seem to believe that the best way forward lies in calling for heavy-handed regulation, pushing for new copyright charges on links to their articles and calling for antitrust action against companies such as Facebook, Amazon and us."

"If adopted, this approach creates serious economic dangers. Above all, it risks creating an innovation desert in Europe," wrote Schmidt. "Some companies will leave and, worse still, others will never get off the ground - blocked by rules designed to protect the incumbents."

But Döpfner argued that Google's aversion to European law, and the claim that there were innovations that Google wanted to bring to his country but are unable to because they're technically illegal, brings up the questions of what kind of company Google sees itself as. "Does this mean that Google is planning to operate in a legal vacuum, without the hassle of anti-trust and privacy?" asked Döpfner, as translated by BBC. "A kind of superstate?"

Döpfner also attacked Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who purportedly answered an audience question about privacy, at a conference Döpfner attended, by saying, "Those who have nothing to hide, have nothing to fear." For Döpfner, this is perhaps the most dangerous mindset for American tech giants: "Again and again I had to think about this sentence. It's terrible. I know it is certainly not meant that way. This is a mindset that was fostered in totalitarian regimes, not in liberal societies. Such a sentence could also be said by the head of the Stasi or other intelligence service, or a dictatorship."

What do you think? Are Google and Facebook too powerful and unaccountable, or are these German media titans just worried about losing their own power to a foreign company? Should we be afraid of Google and Facebook? Tell us in the comments.