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Eric Schmidt criticizes David Cameron 's suggestion that potential troublemakers should be excluded from social media

Google 's Executive Chairman, Eric Schmidt, criticized David Cameron' s suggestion that the use of social media sites during riots in the wake of the riots, the place in England to limit this month.

Schmidt, at the Media Guardian Edinburgh International Television Festival on Saturday, said that should such a step was backfiring, highlighted, as when the Egyptian authorities turned off the internet to try and suppress riots earlier this year, only "angry the citizens and got them to leave their homeland to protest in ".

Asked in Edinburgh, which he by Cameron 'thoughts' s proposal, Schmidt said: "I think it' .. Sat mistake is a mistake to look in the mirror and try to break the mirror Whatever the problem was [ that the riots] The Internet is a mirror image of this problem. If you have a problem, use the Internet to understand what the problem is. "

Cameron struck in the wake of the riots, the social media services such as BlackBerry Messenger, Twitter and Facebook could shut down temporarily to prevent a repetition of the problems.

Schmidt, that in a Q & A session after his MacTaggart lecture at the festival on Friday evening, said such a move a "strategic mistake ... like turning off the water," would.

"When the revolution happens Eygtian a number of people were busy, that the revolutionaries and the majority, where the anxiety at home. The government turned on the Internet for about four days. It brought the citizens and brought them to their homes can protest, "he added.

"It was a strategic mistake. It 's like turning off the tap. A lot of people are using these [sites] substantially every day of their life, and when you turn it you' re really emit them piss. "

The Government seems already rowing back on first Cameron 's proposal.

On Thursday, the Interior Minister, Theresa May, said social networks at a meeting that the government does not intend, "internet restricting services 'had.

BlackBerry maker Research in Motion, Facebook and Twitter were to meet with May, after Cameron 's quoted post comments unrest through social media.

May sees one opened the meeting by immediately exclude restrictive measures, and indicates that there was a discussion on the improvement of law enforcement online.

According to sources acknowledged at the hearing that the police that they "needed more \ do" in terms of learning how to use social media. Understood the London police have said they are "a little behind" other forces when it came to Twitter and Facebook.

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