Democracy News

Google CEO Warns of Increased State Censorship of Internet
July 13, 2011
By: Carlos Aramayo | Printer Friendly

On July 11, at the Summit Against Violent Extremism in Dublin, Ireland, Google CEO Eric Schmidt warned that the ongoing Arab uprisings could spark an upsurge in internet censorship and regulation by authoritative governments. Schmidt affirmed that certain regimes were eager to restrict internet freedoms after social media applications were widely used by protestors as organizational tools during what has been dubbed by the West as the Arab Spring. Google has frequently come into conflict with governments that restrict the flow of information in the web.

In Schmidt’s view, certain governments would like the Internet to become as regulated as television. "The reason is that as the technology becomes more pervasive and as the citizenry becomes completely wired and the content gets localized to the language of the country, it becomes an issue like television," Schmidt stated. Furthermore he added, “television in most of these countries 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," BBC News reported.

Previously on March 20, the company accused the Chinese government of interfering with its Gmail email system. According to the Guardian, the move followed extensive attempts by the Chinese authorities to crack down on the "Jasmine Revolution," an online dissident movement inspired by events in the Middle East. At the time Google stated it had "noticed some highly targeted and apparently politically motivated attacks against [its] users.” Google said that it believed activists were specifically targeted.

Additionally, Schmidt reflected that Google employees were in danger of arrest and possible torture in certain parts of the world where the material that appears on its search engine  is deemed illegal. "There are countries where it is illegal to do things that Google encourages," he stated.

Google employee Wael Ghonim was detained by Egyptian authorities for two weeks at the height of protests in Cairo earlier this year. The protests which toppled President Hosni Mubarak  were largely organized using the Internet. During the protests, Google launched a service to help Egyptians use Twitter despite Internet restrictions imposed by the regime.

For previous news on Internet freedom and censorship, please see:
CCD’s A Brief Survey on the Status of Internet Freedom in the World

Sources:
BBC News – Google chairman warns of censorship after Arab Spring

Reuters – Google sees growing struggle over web censorship

Guardian UK – Google accuses China of interfering with Gmail email system