Google's Schmidt says Internet will bring down corrupt governments

Google chairman Eric Schmidt has said that the Internet would be helpful in bringing down countries with corrupt governments.

Addressing a Google Big Tent conference in Watford, Schmidt argued that the web has made it harder for governments to censor information from their populations, and explained that the revolutions in Tunisia and elsewhere were public reactions against dictators.

"You can understand Tunisia's revolution as a failure of the dictator to censor the Internet. It's very difficult for governments that are autocratic to operate when populations are against them," The Telegraph quoted Schmidt as saying.

He claimed that even China and "The Great Firewall" were only successful at limiting some criticism of its leaders.

"Even people that have monopoly power are sensitive to shame, sensitive to embarrassment; you can use the Internet to hold those governments to account," he outlined.

Schmidt claimed that as more people in the developing world replaced their current phones with smartphones, several billion people would engage with the wider world via the web.

"They will love their phones more than you do because they will be the way they get educated," he told the audience of technology and policy experts.

"The solution is openness and transparency in government and connectivity for the individual," he added.

However, he added that the "elites" would surge further ahead, and could start to use holograms to communicate.