Everyone on Earth to have internet access by 2025, but governments will have more online power too

State crackdowns on websites they do not approve of are likely to increase in the future while government spies will snoop further into web surfers’ lives, a new report claims. The frightening predictions for the future of the internet lay bear the fears thousands of computer experts have of the direction the world wide web will go in by 2025.
The Pew Research Center quizzed more than 1,400 experts on whether or not people will be more or less able to freely share information online in a decade. While most, 65%, said the web of the future would be more open, many feared that the open structure which made the net so powerful would be seriously under threat.
Dave Burstein, editor of Fast Net News, said: “Governments worldwide are looking for more power over the net, especially within their own countries. Britain, for example, has just determined that ISPs block sites the government considers ‘terrorist’ or otherwise dangerous. This will grow. There will usually be ways to circumvent the obstruction but most people won’t bother."
Former journalist and lawyer Stuart Chittenden, added: "The Internet is a controlled environment, where the product online is the data about the people that are using it.
"Governments want to gather and control that information to and about its citizenry, companies want to exploit it and direct us secretly for profit, and military/espionage entities want to snoop.”
The fears come after Google was slammed for removing links to certain stories under a new EU directive that people have the right to be forgotten. Despite these fears, others felt the free exchange of information would be made easier while  filmmaker Tiffany Shalin said that “every human being on the planet will be online” by 2025.
Others questioned in the survey, suggested that the future of the internet was reliant on the streaming of TV shows, music and film - with companies trying to control where the content goes and how.