Former Google CEO: Internet is going to split into Chinese and non-Chinese versions

The internet will split into a version for China and a version for all other countries worldwide in the next ten to fifteen years, Eric Schmidt thinks. Schmidt was a director of Google for many years.

The second internet would then be a China-led internet, but it wouldn’t be limited to China, Schmidt said in a private investor meeting in San Francisco last week, CNBC writes. “Globalization means they (China) can play too. I think you’re going to see great leadership in products and services from China. There is a real danger that along with these products and services, another government leadership regime comes, with censorship and control.”

Schmidt also refers to the Belt and Road Initiative, in which the Chinese government tries to increase its influence on other countries by intensifying investment and trade. This also applies to digital trade.

It is unknown how Schmidt would envision a split of the two ‘internets’ and whether this would involve, for example, a physical split of the networks. Schmidt was the director of Google from 2001 to 2011.