this post was submitted on 17 Mar 2024
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Al Gore claimed to be involved in approving the funding which resulted in the creation of the Internet.
-Snopes
His choice of words was poor and makes it sound like alone “took the initiative in creating the internet.” Whatever he really meant, his wording makes it sound like he’s claiming a bit more credit for his role than it merits.
It's also worth reading an open letter from Robert Kahn and Vinton Cerf on the issue. While no one person invented the Internet, those two would be towards the top of the list of people who were involved in inventing it.
https://web.eecs.umich.edu/~fessler/misc/funny/gore,net.txt
tl;dr: Al Gore was among the first policy makers to really understand its importance, and pushed for legislation that got it into people's homes. Technical people tend to scoff at politicians a lot, but good policy making is important. The Internet would not have taken off the same way without Al Gore.
"Took initiative in creating the internet" sounds a lot to me like making sure it happened (which is exactly the role a government official should have; funding and policy). It's very different than claiming he invented it.