Nations Chafe at U.S. Influence Over the Internet: Because the Internet first took root in the United States, it may be understandable that American interests have tended to prevail. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology, for example, still has more Internet addresses than all of China, according to Lee McKnight, an associate professor at Syracuse University and an M.I.T. research affiliate. By 2007, though, more than 50 percent of Web users will be Chinese, according to some forecasts.