At a recent conference in Ireland, Google's chairman Eric Schmidt, stated that certain governments are seeking to regulate the internet the same way they regulate television and radio. Schmidt's other concern was that his colleagues in these countries would be imprisoned or tortured because of their link to web content that was deemed illegal.
So exactly where is Schmidt's concern coming from? The internet was a widely used tool during Arab Spring, a wave of revolutions and protests that began back in December 2010. This movement has been the largest that region of the world has ever seen. Protestors have been commonly known to use social networking sites and internet resources to organized their protests. The internet is also frequently used to interact with the media of other countries in areas where tight restrictions are imposed on media interactions.
It's already very well known that major countries, like China, restrict internet within their borders. China itself blocks 12 out of the top 100 global websites. Schmidt is concerned that more countries will follow the lead of China and middle eastern countries, imposing heavy regulations on internet content.
"The reason is that as the technology becomes more pervasive and as the citizenry becomes completely wired and the content gets localised to the language of the country, it becomes an issue like television."
"If you look at television in most of these countries, television is highly regulated because the leaders, partial dictators, half dictators or whatever you want to call them understand the power of television imagery to keep their citizenry in some bucket," Schmidt continued.
China is an excellent example of Schmidt's concerns, and a country that Google itself has clashed with repeatedly. Schmidt goes on to express concern for the company's employees in countries that impose internet restrictions. Schmidt is likely correct that this will become more of a problem as time goes on. Which countries will impose restrictions and more importantly, what the penalties will be for trying to get around those restrictions will likely constantly evolve. More protests and uprisings will surely mean more regulations, but which countries will impose them first?
Schmidt has previously vowed to fight Internet censorship, so his latest statements shouldn't be a surprise to anyone familiar with his stance.
Along with censorship being a hot button topic in dictatorial territories, other countries like the USA and France are also exploring Internet censorship laws under the guise of preventing piracy.
