The Freename Forum

The Chagos Archipelago in the Indian Ocean, the last remaining part of the British Indian Ocean Territory, has regained its sovereignty after lengthy negotiations. The future of the top level domain .io is therefore once again in the stars.

Originally consisting of seven atolls with around 60 mostly uninhabited small islands, the British Indian Ocean Territory had mainly military significance in the end. In 1965, Great Britain separated the administration of the Chagos Islands from the colonial territory of Mauritius, which was granted independence three years later. The main island of the archipelago, Diego Garcia, was leased by the kingdom to the USA in 1966, which maintained a military base there. The inhabitants were forcibly relocated at the time, mostly to Mauritius. Although Great Britain apologised for the expulsion, it insisted that Mauritius itself had no legitimate claim to the islands. For decades, Mauritius struggled to gain serious international support on this issue. The turning point came with a court ruling; on 25 February 2019, the International Court of Justice came to the conclusion by 13 votes to 1 that ‘the United Kingdom is under an obligation to bring to an end its administration of the Chagos Archipelago as rapidly as possible’. This decision has now been implemented by the governments of Great Britain and Mauritius. According to a joint declaration dated 3 October 2024, the United Kingdom will agree to Mauritius' sovereignty over the Chagos Archipelago. This includes the main island of Diego Garcia; however, for an ‘initial period of 99 years’, the UK will be authorised to exercise the sovereign rights and powers of Mauritius in relation to Diego Garcia to ensure the operation of the US military base well into the next century. Mauritius will be free to implement a resettlement programme on the islands of the Chagos archipelago, with the exception of Diego Garcia, and the UK will set up a new trust fund and provide further support separately.

The future of the top level domain .io, the official country code of the British Indian Ocean Territory, is still unclear. In principle, the Internet administration ICANN or the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) is guided by the ‘ISO 3166-1’ standard list when assigning country code extensions; .io is currently still listed there. However, as the British administration of the Chagos archipelago ends, so does the British territory in the Indian Ocean. Should ‘io’ therefore be removed from the ‘ISO 3166-1’ standard list, the country code top-level domain .io would also cease to exist - and with it the basis for several hundred thousand .io domains. There are no reliable daily registration figures, but the .io extension is particularly popular with tech start-ups. A farewell to .io is not mandatory. Although the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) ceased to exist politically back in 1991, it is still represented in the Domain Name System with .su. A counterexample is .yu; the former country code of Yugoslavia was deleted from the Domain Name System on 1 April 2010. It is equally possible that Mauritius will reissue the registry contract for .io. However, the London-based .io registry Internet Computer Bureau Limited is likely to want to have a say in this. The company, which is now part of Identity Digital (formerly Donuts), generated revenues of around US$ 40 million with .io in 2023. With .ac (Ascension) and .sh (St Helena and Tristan da Cunha), the Internet Computer Bureau Limited also has two other exotic top-level domains under contract.

There is no immediate danger for .io domain holders. Neither the UK nor Mauritius have indicated in their joint declaration that they intend to give up .io; this will ultimately only be clear from the international treaties that have yet to be ratified. However, companies whose main presence is based on a .io domain should endeavour to find a sensible alternative in the near future so that they can move their infrastructure and content to an alternative domain if necessary.

The joint declaration by the UK and Mauritius can be found here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/join ... tober-2024

You can find the decision of the International Court of Justice at:
https://www.icj-cij.org/files/case-rela ... -00-EN.pdf

The news that the Chagos Archipelago in the Indian Ocean, the last remaining part of the British Indian Ocean Territory, has regained its sovereignty after lengthy negotiations made headlines around the world. However, fears that the top level domain .io and with it hundreds of thousands of registered domains could disappear from the internet are increasingly proving to be premature. For domain blogger Andrew Allemann (domainnamewire.com), for example, it is very unlikely that .io domain holders will lose their address. The Internet administration ICANN aims to protect the security and stability of the Domain Name System; deleting a popular and heavily used top level domain is not compatible with this. Thomas Claburn (theregister.com) assumes that nothing will happen in the next five years. ‘Should ‘IO’ no longer be retained as a coding for this territory, it would trigger a 5-year retirement process described at [the IANA website], during which time registrants may need to migrate to a successor code or an alternate location,’ Claburn quotes an ICANN spokesperson. However, anyone setting up their company or project on a country code extension must be aware that changes may occur, especially in politically unstable countries. ‘ccTLDs are the wild west of the internet,’ says Allemann.

Source: https://domainnamewire.com/2024/10/09/i ... oing-away/