I was told the same thing last summer when I was in China. An English speaking Chinese citizen told me that despite the best efforts of the Chinese regime to block access to sites on the internet, he and many others were able to find ways around the censorship. He then demonstrated his knowledge of the weekly primetime television line-up in America. He knew far more than I did.
The hope is that the internet will be one of the mechanisms by which politically oppressed people will be able to access information about the outside world and ultimately demand change from their respective government. As people living in repressive countries become more aware of the political freedoms that exist in other countries, they too will eventually reach a point where they will demand such rights for themselves. Of course, there are many obstacles to winning these much coveted political freedoms, namely the heavily armed tyrannical governments who don’t want to grant them to their citizens.
Viva la web Revolucion!