Governmental transparency and freedom of information are the first defenses against tyranny. The less a government feels the need to be open and truthful, the more prone it is to try to get away with acts of which its citizens would not approve were they informed.
It is vital that government tell its citizens the truth. Unless government strives to be open and truthful, democracies are not democratic.
Is your government telling you the truth? Your media? Corporations? ….
The ideology that drives much of the online world is the idea that information in sufficient quantity automatically becomes truth. If information is truth, and the truth will set you free, then adding more information to the Internet automatically makes the world better and people freer. However, information in oceanic magnitude can confuse and confound as easily as it can clarify and empower, even when the information is correct.
In free societies, as long as state and corporate power are closely linked, inconvenient facts can be sent to oblivion. However, an informed and organized public can free itself from the delusions imposed by power systems and make a difference.