The internet is changing.

Conspiracy theorists have not picked up on the fact that much of the initial technology would not have been developed without the US military, but since then the web has evolved into a wonderfully anarchic free market of ideas.

However, the nature of anarchy ensures that it can never last – and it usually ends in dictatorship.

It was the issue of technical compatibility that led to the first internet dictatorship: customers wanted convenience more than they wanted choice. So the call went up for a “Strong Man” to take charge – and the unlikely figure of Bill Gates of Microsoft was only too happy to take on the role.

The next problem was sorting the vast amount of information that was being generated by the fast-developing technology. Bill was eager to take on this job too, but people were already tiring of his grip on the technology. So the way was open for a new internet dictator, Google.

Now it seems that Google is in turn giving way to another internet dictator, the Chinese government. Google made a Devil’s deal when it set up shop in China, accepting the condition that it would co-operate with the massive state censorship there.

Now it has discovered that “someone” – no prizes for guessing – has launched a sophisticated cyber-attack, accessing the g-mail accounts of Chinese dissidents. Google is now considering whether it can remain in China.

While Red China is an extreme case, most governments are trying to exert control over the internet. It is relatively easy for a modern state to block access to politically inconvenient websites and to hack e-mail accounts. Even in the United Kingdom, the birthplace of liberal democracy, the government wants providers to keep records of private e-mails, so that officials can peek at them if they want.

Throughout history, technologies that have been developed by free enterprise have come under ever greater state control. That may be happening to the internet.

If so, this will not be the end of the internet, but it may mark the end of the pioneering phase that has given many of us opportunities we have come to take for granted.