Internet keeps government honest: Google chief

Broader adoption of the Internet will keep governments on their toes as wired-up citizens exercise their new-found power to check rights abuses, Google chief Eric Schmidt said on Saturday. "In nations and communities around the world, citizens are turning to online tools to keep their governments honest," he told business leaders on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum in Honolulu.
"Whistleblowing has never been so easy," he said.
Schmidt cited demonstrations that toppled the leaders of Tunisia and Egypt in which activists used Facebook to schedule protests, Twitter to co-ordinate them and YouTube to broadcast the events to the world. "Online citizens can find like-minded allies, they can find like-minded diasporas from a country," he said.