The internet, the infrastructure that supports it, and the protocols that allow it to function were developed by the government (see also: DARPAnet). It was only after the gov't made DARPANET accessible to the public and made the protocols open-source and non-proprietary that the internet as we know it was created. Had those protocols been developed in the private system and been made proprietary to one or two companies, the internet wouldn't have grown by such leaps and bound nor would it have been accessible to so many so soon. To say nothing of the lassiez faire "wild west" nature of it. It is only through the "socialism" of keeping the internet open domain that this is possible.