China, Russia seek more control over web

An eight-country group, including China and Russia, have redrafted a proposal to the UN agency for telecommunications that could give nations rights over web content in their territories, Bloomberg reported. The revised draft would allow member states control over all naming, numbering, addressing and identification used for international telecommunications in their countries, according to remarks made by various delegations at the World Conference on International Telecommunications. Those responsibilities for assigning web addresses are currently handled by two non-government organizations. The UK, the US, Canada, Australia, the Czech Republic, Sweden, Australia and Germany asked for the proposal to be rejected, stating that they had agreed not to discuss the regulation of the web at the conference.  The coalition supporting the revised plan includes Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Algeria and the United Arab Emirates. The conference is held by the International Telecommunication Union, a UN body.