Every Western government is receiving the same briefings from its intelligence and counterintelligence agencies: these powers are needed in case the third world war starts.

I think western governments want these tools just to maintain order, they used to rely a lot on their ability to manufacture consent among their populous but the Internet allows people to discover inconvenient truths that threaten the old order. Everyone used to be pretty happy with the appearance of freedom and democracy in the western world because they didn't know any better and mainstream media was tightly controlled so they couldn't find out either, now they're learning they're neither free nor have any say in their governance from alternative media so here come the crackdowns on free speech and any form of protest or dissent.

They've been pushing for this stuff for ever, at least 20 years ago.