Google sees growing struggle over web censorship

DUBLIN (Reuters) – 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 organised 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.

Google has long had issues with China over restricted use of the Internet and partially pulled out of the world’s largest Internet market by users last year over censorship concerns and a computer hacking attempt it said it traced to the country.

The chairman of the world’s largest web search engine warned that in certain countries governments would try to make sure the Internet became as regulated as television.

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