When did anyone actually know what was going on online? 1990? 1980? When the Internet was still super tiny? Clearly nobody ever in this century. It is way too much content in way too many languages and way too complicated ways.
Conspiracy theorists on the other hand: "CIA, Aliens, 3 letter agencies...." Blah blah blah.
I'll say this though, the notion of having the ability to know what's going on on the internet is a good concept, even if abstractly. It's just that the implementations have never been meaningful other than focusing on attaining/ acquiring a capital of information composed of data about people that can then be utilised in other ways, for monetary values (which was a cool concept, in it's own respectful ways, but I think it's still not there, and it is certainly not the kind of thing that would directly serve society and help give back).