The web lets citizens check rights abuses: Eric Schmidt

Widespread internet adoption is crucial in allowing wired citizens to keep their governments in check when it comes to rights abuses. That’s according to Google chief Eric Schmidt.

Speaking to business leaders at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum in Hawaii, Schmidt underlined how important the web is to keeping people informed about their governments.

“In nations and communities around the world, citizens are turning to online tools to keep their governments honest,” adding that “Whistleblowing has never been so easy.”

Schmidt cited examples of online tools being used during the Arab Spring, which saw decades-old regimes toppled in Tunisia and Egypt. Activists there used Facebook to schedule protests, Twitter to coordinate them and YouTube to broadcast them to the world, he said.

“Online citizens can find like-minded allies, they can find like-minded diasporas from a country,” said Schmidt.

He then pointed to the fact that, with 52% of the global population under the age of 30, young people can have a bigger say on issues because they use the internet most prolifically.

“They are the ones who are online, that’s how you reach them, that’s how they talk to each other. They share applications and proxy and circumvention tools and help magnify each others’ causes,” he said.

Schmidt warned, however, that the importance of online tools for protests could be exaggerated.

“It’s easy in the online world to create the impression of a revolution in the form of noise. It’s important to understand what is a legitimate protest and whether it’s just people trying to create some noise… some excitement.”

This kind of thought is in line with commentators who have suggested that the role of social media in various public actions, including the Arab Spring and Iranian election protests was somewhat exaggerated.

Bloggers who took part in the Arab Spring have themselves said that the internet was just a tool rather than the primary reason for the success of the protests.

Schmidt believes nonetheless that a broader adoption of the internet will lead to the creation of two global systems: The physical sphere where a government has power over its people and a virtual world where people can have more influence.

The internet is also affording less and less hiding room for those who do wrong.

An online citizenry means that atrocities can be documented more easily and “we can start trials against evil-doers before (their acts are) even stopped,” he said.

“There are no caves online.”

Even China, which blocks any online content it deems politically inflammatory, has seen its people use the platforms such as the Twitter-like weibos to criticise government corruption.

With only an estimated two-billion of the seven-billion global population online, there is still room for expansion, Schmidt says.