I don't recall internet without the "the" being used by anybody in the UK in the early 90s. One confounding factor is that news articles were almost 100% writte

I don't recall internet without the "the" being used by anybody in the UK in the early 90s. One confounding factor is that news articles were almost 100% written by people who had no knowledge or experience of the topic, and were almost universally as buttock-clenchingly awful as any article written on youth culture at any point in history. In the US in particular the press seems to glory in using the wrong phrases and sounding utterly disconnected from whatever they are reporting on