The Internet has been a great democratizer, breaking down barriers and bringing information to places that were once closed societies.

Unfortunately, this trend may not continue.

The Edmonton Journal reports:

“Internet giant Google's tussles with some governments over Internet censorship could get worse, executive chairman Eric Schmidt said on Monday, adding he feared his own colleagues faced mounting danger of occasional arrest and torture. After the 'Arab spring' saw revolutionary crowds largely organized over the Internet topple leaders in Tunisia and Egypt, governments in other authoritarian states have moved to try to lock down Internet dissent—although with mixed success.”

Schmidt, speaking in Dublin at an event organized by Google, said regulation of the Internet in certain countries could become similar to that of TV.

“The reason is that as the technology becomes more pervasive and as the citizenry becomes completely wired . . . 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.”

Will we see more government censorship of the Internet in the coming years?

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