we all know that, but the fact is that Gore wasn't even in congress in 1969. What he is claiming is that he championed some gov't agencies to move towards an internet type system in the 80's, with Reagan's approval. It would have been ok to say that much, but he wanted his words to have more impact. I know all about when government funding managers call something 'their' program. It's ego, and all they are doing is rubberstamping other people's ideas.
Well you gotta factor in how well one is able to listen and apply proper context to things. He even followed that statement by saying he took the initiative in moving forward a whole range of initiatives. People who heard Al Gore say he created the internet also heard Pres. Obama, say, "you didn't build that". We must just face the facts that conservatives just aren't the sharpest knives in the drawer.
With the ever rising police state and surveillance in the "good ol' USA", government has a vested interest in it's development (the internet) and keeping social media such as Facebook rockin'.
The gov't did advance their capacity to wiretap Americans in the last decade under the guise of protection from terrorism, and yes, it is a bit worrisome. Not exactly in 1984 proportion, but could get that way. Implanting chips in babies with SS numbers? Good or bad? Helped with monitoring from abduction, but is that where we really want to go as a society? I'm honestly not sure. GPS for everyone's car and phone is already a done deal, and since so many won't go anywhere without their phone, well, the gov't doesn't have to do much. We'll see, hopefully the civil liberties people will come up with something.