who runs Internet

WHO RUNS THE INTERNET?
Who controls this web, this cloud, this network of networks? Well, no one, really. The Internet seems to be both institutional and anti-institutional at the same time, massive and intimate, organized and chaotic. In a sense the Internet is an international cooperative endeavor, with its member networks kicking in money, hardware, maintenance, and technical expertise.

The U.S. government has had a big influence on the federally funded parts of the Internet. The National Science Foundation (NSF), as mentioned, initiated the NSFNET in the mid 1980s, a nationwide backbone in the United States that connected many mid-level networks, which in turn connected universities and other organizations.