Twitter and Facebook riot restrictions would be a mistake, says Google chief

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 what he thought of Cameron's suggestion, Schmidt said: "I think it's a mistake. It is a mistake to look into the mirror and try to break the mirror. Whatever the problem was [that caused the riots] the internet is a reflection of that problem. If you have a problem, use the internet to understand what the problem is."

Cameron suggested in the aftermath of the unrest that social media services like BlackBerry Messenger, Twitter and Facebook could be closed down temporarily to prevent a repeat of the trouble.

Schmidt, appearing in a Q&A session following his MacTaggart lecture at the festival on Friday evening, said such a move would be a "strategic error … like turning off the water".

"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 error. It's like turning off the water. An awful lot of people use these [sites] in essential ways every day of their lives and if you switch them off you're really going to piss them off."

The government already appears to be rowing back on Cameron's initial suggestion.

On Thursday the home secretary, Theresa May, told social networks at a meeting to that the government had no intention of "restricting internet services".

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 is understood to have opened the meeting by immediately ruling out restrictive measures and indicating that it was a discussion about improving law enforcement online.

According to sources at the meeting, police acknowledged that they "needed to do more" with regard to learning how to use social media. The Metropolitan police are understood to have said they were "slightly behind" other forces when it came to Twitter and Facebook.

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