'We face a fight for the future of the web,' says
Google's executive chairman Eric Schmidt
JEROME TAYLOR
WEDNESDAY 23 MAY 2012
One of Google’s most senior executives issued a stark
warning tonight that the power of the internet to free some of the world’s most
oppressed people risks being overturned by autocratic governments who seek to
“Balkanise” the web by controlling what can be accessed.
Eric Schmidt, the current executive chairman of the
Silicon Valley internet giant, said technology had the potential to be a “great
leveller” which would empower the poor like never before. But he added that
dictatorial regimes were increasingly looking to control who has access to the
web by “filtering information they fear or prohibit.”
The 57-year-old software engineer, who stepped down as
Google’s CEO last year after more than a decade in the driving seat, called on
the international community to “fight for the future of the web” stating that
at least 40 governments are now known to engage in online censorship compared
to just four a decade ago.
“Last year we saw in Egypt what happened when a
government tried to turn the Internet off, “ he said last night in a speech at
the Science Museum in Kensington, referencing the moment when the struggling
regime of Hosni Mubarak tried to block the web in the face of mass street
protests. “Now many governments are attempting to build their own walled
Internet, a Balkanised web in which you and I do not see the same information
and no one knows what has been censored.”
Using somewhat apocalyptic language, he stated that web
users “face the real possibility we could end up living in society in which
software silently deletes our voices, our thoughts our culture.”
“Make no mistake, he added. ”This is a fight for the
future of the web and there is no room for complacency.”
Mr Schmidt’s comments came in a speech that outlined his
belief in how the internet will develop over the coming decades. He painted a
utopian portrait of a world increasingly liberated by technology, where the
growing affordability of smart phones and web connections would help the
world’s poorest join the information super highway and fight their would-be
oppressors. A smartphone which currently costs $400, he predicted, might be as
cheap as $20 in 12 years time.
“Technology will be a great leveller,” he said. “It
empowers by its very nature. By ensuring universal access – to the cloud, to
each other, to the world – we will create greater freedom and opportunity for
all.
He added: “States will struggle to sell propaganda to the
public as citizens get constant access to mobile phone and social networks. In
times of war and suffering it will be harder to ignore the voices that cry out
for help”.
But the Google executive also issued a series of warnings
over where the future of the internet remains acutely vulnerable. As well as
fretting about the increasing willingness of states to filter access to the
web, Mr Schmidt admitted that it will take at least a decade to secure the web
from criminal networks.
“Fixing this problem is a huge task,” he said.” Except
for military networks, every single note on the web is connected and will need
to be upgraded.”
He also expressed concerns about the difficulty citizens
have in removing data about themselves from the web, remarking that the
Internet currently had no “delete button.”
“A false accusation in your youth used to fade away; now
it can remain forever,” he said. “I hope that ranking emerges that
distinguishes between truth and falsehood to allow people to start over on a
new footing.”
The Google executive has previously expressed
reservations about the amount of personal information people leave on the
internet – even once suggesting that younger generations might have to create
new identities to escape their cyber record once they enter the work place.
His concerns over online privacy is perhaps surprising
given that he has helped create a company that has made billions by perfecting
the art of hoarding, storing and retrieving information on us.
Much of Mr Schmidt's speech was dedicated to whether we
are doing enough to train future generations of engineers and software
developers – a theme he has often expressed concern about. Last year he
delivered a devastating critique of Britain's education.
In his latest speech he struck a more conciliatory tone
saying he was “impressed with [the government's] willingness to engage on this
crucial issue”. But he warned that more needed to be done to promote science
and engineering to younger generations.
“So long as more kids aspire to win the X-Factor than win
a Nobel Prize, there is room to improve,” he said.
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