Information wants to be free, Stewart Brand, co-founder of the Well online community in San Francisco, said more than 20 years ago. It remains the pithiest expression of two truths about the internet: it lowers the cost of distribution of words and pictures, and it enables information to spread freely within countries and across borders.

Less well-known is Mr Brand’s counterpoint, that “information wants to be expensive because it’s so valuable. The right information in the right place just changes your life . . . so you have these two fighting against each other”. As the internet infiltrates all commercial and political life, that fight has become ever fiercer.