The internet is now my portal to the rest of the world. I can contact people anywhere on this planet, from Antarctica to Zanzibar. If I want to plan a trip to Iran this summer, I may meet friends from that country on the internet, then visit them in their native land. They may learn from me, and I may learn from them. In no time in history had the whole of mankind has it been so easy for people around the world to communicate.
Communication is essentially the passing of information between individuals.
Freer communication means wider availability of information. Thoughout history, tyrants have been able to subjugate populations by denial of information. In olden times, only elite church officials could read Latin and thus have access to Holy Scripture. They were empowered by virtue of their monopoly of knowledge. In the same way, your former Communist masters maintained power by suppressing information.