The Internet makes it much harder to govern in the same way that a free press in the 1700s made it harder to govern - when you have viewpoints outside of govern

The Internet makes it much harder to govern in the same way that a free press in the 1700s made it harder to govern - when you have viewpoints outside of government propaganda available people might choose to take those viewpoints over the government's own. So the government has to listen to the people to have at least an air of legitimacy, and there's nothing that pisses off a bureaucrat more than having to listen to those they are accountable to.