Fire Alarm Companies

Eric Schmidt criticises David Cameron's proposal that potential rioters should be barred from social media

Google's executive chairman, Eric Schmidt, has criticised David Cameron's proposal to limit the use of social media sites during civil unrest in the wake of the riots that took place across England earlier this month.

Schmidt, speaking at the MediaGuardian Edinburgh International Television Festival on Saturday, said that such a move was likely to backfire, highlighting how when the Egyptian authorities turned the internet off to try and quell unrest earlier this year it merely "enraged the citizens and got them to leave their homes to protest".

Asked in Edinburgh, which he by Cameron 'thoughts' s proposal, Schmidt said: "I think it' .. Sat mistake is a mistake to look in the mirror and try to break the mirror Whatever the problem was [ that the riots] The Internet is a mirror image of this problem. If you have a problem, use the Internet to understand what the problem is. "

Cameron struck in the wake of the riots, the social media services such as BlackBerry Messenger, Twitter and Facebook could shut down temporarily to prevent a repetition of the problems.

Schmidt, that in a Q & A session after his MacTaggart lecture at the festival on Friday evening, said such a move a "strategic mistake ... like turning off the water," would.

"When the Eygtian revolution happened a number of people were busy being revolutionaries and a majority where at home being afraid. The government turned off the internet for about four days. They enraged the citizens and got them to leave their homes to protest," he added.

"It was a strategic mistake. It 's like turning off the tap. A lot of people are using these [sites] substantially every day of their life, and when you turn it you' re really emit them piss. "

The Government seems already rowing back on first Cameron 's proposal.

On Thursday, the Interior Minister, Theresa May, said social networks at a meeting that the government does not intend, "internet restricting services 'had.

BlackBerry maker Research in Motion, Facebook and Twitter were summoned to the meeting with May after Cameron's post-riots comments about social media.

May sees one opened the meeting by immediately exclude restrictive measures, and indicates that there was a discussion on the improvement of law enforcement online.

According to sources acknowledged at the hearing that the police that they "needed more \ do" in terms of learning how to use social media. Understood the London police have said they are "a little behind" other forces when it came to Twitter and Facebook.

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