Who CONTROLS The Internet?

The internet is simply a connection of computers (generally servers), that stay on all the time and process requests from a client (such as your internet browsers).

Nobody really owns the internet, and everybody is free to host their own servers (unless limited from their ISP).

There is, although, a company named Network Solutions, that has undertaken the duty of registering and maintaining Domain Names.
Domain Names are simply URLs (such as http://answers.yahoo.com), that point to an IP address which identifies a specific server. Then the TCP/IP packets are routed to that server, back to the client and so on.

Domain Names are resolved to IPs using Domain Name Servers (or usually abbreviated DNS). There are many DNS servers containing copies of these IP-Domain Name Databases, but all originate from Network Solutions, and are updated at least once daily.

WHO OWNS THE INTERNET?


No one person or country owns the internet. Literally millions of governments, corporations, universities, commercial companies and citizens own the internet jointly. What this means is that no one can control it in its entirety. In the United States there is a group called the National Science Foundation (NSF) that over looks methods of improving the internet's performance. The NSF is supported by a group called the internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) committee. This committee has to conform to guidelines that are set by the Internet Architecture Board (IAB).

In reality, there are many groups that manage every facet of the internet. Unless you plan to devote your life to serving on one of these committees, you can probably live a very prosperous life on the internet without knowing they exist.