Internet’s Future: Beginning Of Bifurcated Web With China’s Great Firewall In Between, Says Former Google CEO 

Eric Schmidt, the former CEO of Google and the former Executive Chairman of its parent company Alphabet, has predicted that the most likely future scenario of the Internet is its bifurcation into a Chinese-led internet and a non-Chinese internet led by America. This effectively means the end of the World Wide Web as we know it and emergence of Bifurcated Web, with the Great Firewall of China in between.

Schmidt said, “I think the most likely scenario now is not a splintering, but rather a bifurcation into a Chinese-led internet and a non-Chinese internet led by America.”

“If you look at China, and I was just there, the scale of the companies that are being built, the services being built, the wealth that is being created is phenomenal. Chinese Internet is a greater percentage of the GDP of China, which is a big number, than the same percentage of the US, which is also a big number.”

Schmidt also added, “There’s a real danger that along with those products and services comes a different leadership regime from the government, with censorship, controls, etc.”

China has perhaps the most draconian internet censorship rules in the world. For instance, the Chinese government has banned the image of Winnie the Pooh; it even for a time being banned the letter “N”

Schmidt's predictions assume significance coming at a time when Google under its CEO Sunder Pichai has come under fire for its stealth "Project Dragonfly," that seeks to build a censored version of its search engine in compliance with China’s censorship laws.