Russia backtracks on web proposals

DUBAI

Mohamed Nasser Al-Ghanim (R), WCIT-12 Chairman talks with Doreen Bogdan-Martin, Chief of Strategic Planning of Telecommunications. EPA photo

Russian-backed proposals calling for 193 countries to be given “equal rights to manage the internet” have been pulled at a U.N. conference in Dubai, the BBC reported yesterday.

The U.S. had threatened to block the suggested additions to an international communications treaty. It wants the treaty to make minimal reference to the internet, warning that to do otherwise risks state interference. Russia and its partners are now redrafting their document and are expected to submit it later. Attendees to the World Conference on International Telecommunications have until Dec. 14 to renegotiate the 24-year-old treaty.

One of the most controversial suggestions coming from Russia was a call for member states to be given equal rights to manage “internet numbering, naming, addressing and identification resources.” This would potentially mark a shift from the current system in which the U.S. decides who runs the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority.