Will ‘Digital Ethnic Cleansing’ Be Part of the Internet’s Future? Eric Schmidt, Jared Cohen, and Steve Clemons discuss the political limitations of the Internet

It’s easy to assume that a global Internet, with all its promise of scaled communication and education and democratization, will eventually help to foster democracy. But it’s also not entirely accurate to assume that. In a conversation with The Atlantic’s Steve Clemons yesterday evening, Eric Schmidt and Jared Cohen — co-Googlers and co-authors of The New Digital Age: Reshaping the Future of People, Nations, and Business — made a point of emphasizing the limitations of technological innovation. Particularly when it comes to geopolitical change.The Democracy Report”We’re very concerned about the balkanization of the Internet,” Schmidt said — and not just because division itself in so many ways runs contrary to the ideals the Internet, and the web, were founded on. Splintering, especially based on geopolitical divisions, could also have direct political and physical consequences. If you’re an autocratic government that feels threatened by the existence of an open Internet, Schmidt noted, you’re going to resist that Internet — in the way that, say, Iran has resisted it. Last month, he pointed out, Iran announced plans for a state-run digital map that would function as an “Islamic Google Earth.” (“I’m not making this up,” Schmidt insisted, as the crowd laughed at the sad absurdity. “This is actually what they announced.”)
http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2013/05/will-digital-ethnic-cleansing-be-part-of-the-internets-future/276004/