With the amount of countries, governments and social platforms all of a sudden censoring and banning VPNs all at once (they are using pr0n as an excuse to destroy our internet privacy) over the last few days, the utility of Tor has just skyrocketed.
It would be good if you had specified which countries you are referring to, as I am sure they all fall on the same side of the political spectrum. If I google it, the first 10 results are:
China
Belarus
Turkey
Russia
Iraq
Iran
North Korea
UAE
Oman
In other words, a mixture of neo-communists and authoritarians, which are usually linked. The latest controversy in this regard has been in the UK, whose government seems determined to bring to life the novel 1984 that you refer to.
I think it's important to emphasize this because I keep seeing people on the forum arguing that the best guarantor of society's well-being is a strong state that controls evil corporations, lest they make too much money, and other such nonsense.