Correction: The Internet grew like wildfire under government oversight. The government gave up as the key carrier of Internet traffic in 1994 by allowing other backbones aside from NSFNet, and dropped commercial restrictions in 1995. The government allowed the growth. But the granting of IP addresses and domain names is still done under federal contract.
“The government allowed the growth. “
You made my point. It did not take off until the feds got out of its growth. It languished for several decades wtihout any growth while the governmentcontrolled it.
And let me rephrase your comment, “The government stopped preventing its growth”. They did not “allow it”. A government cannot “allow” anything. It can only prevent.