This week Spain hosted the world's biggest mobile phone conference . Today, more and more people are accessing the internet through their phones and other mobile devices. So this seemed a good moment to debate how the world will change when huge numbers of people get online, many for the first time.
The theme of our latest Big Tent event in Madrid was five billion voices: the internet and free expression.
Google’s Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt spoke of the life-changing potential of bringing tablets and low cost computers to billions of people in the developing world. At the same time, he warned about a construction of a digital caste system - where the world’s digital elites move ever further ahead through access to highest quality technology.
Another danger is government censorship. Schmidt warned that today more than 40 governments around the world seek to deny their citizens access to the internet. In the debate that followed, the famous Spanish journalist, Malén Aznárez, President of the Spanish office of Reporteros sin Fronteras , suggested that we were underestimating the threat. Tthe number of governments now censoring the internet has risen to 60, Aznárez said, adding that authoritarian regimes are learning fast how to block and filter content.
Subjects covered in the course of the lunchtime event included the proposed US Stop Online Piracy Act, Child Safety online, and the European Commission's proposed Right to be Forgotten.
Secretary of State for Telecoms and the Information Society, Víctor Calvo-Sotelo Ibáñez-Martín, closed with a speech outlining the new Spanish government’s commitment both to the digital economy and to online government transparency.
This was the latest of a series of Big Tent events aimed at bringing together diverse points of view on the hot issues relating to the internet and society. So far we’ve held them in London , Berlin and the Hague . We’ll be continuing the debate on a range of issues - free expression, privacy, copyright, innovation and more - over the coming months all around the world. And coming soon, we’ll be launching the Big Tent YouTube channel so you can join in the debate, wherever you live.
Posted by Peter Barron, Director, External Relation, EMEA
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