A treaty from the United Kingdom could mean the end of the .io domain.

A recently concluded treaty by the United Kingdom could mark the end of the .io domain. Last week, the British government announced that it has agreed to relinquish ownership of the Chagos Islands, a territory in the Indian Ocean that has been under its control since 1814, which also implies the relinquishment of the .io domain.

To understand this situation, it is necessary to go back in time. According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, the Chagos Islands were inhabited by the French in the 18th century, who brought slaves to the archipelago. In 1814, the French ceded control of the islands and the nation island of Mauritius to the British. Upon taking control, the UK maintained the Chagos Islands as a dependency of Mauritius.

In 1965, the UK granted sovereignty to Mauritius, but its government decided to separate the Chagos Islands, establishing them as a British Indian Ocean Territory. As part of this process, the UK displaced the Chagossian population to allow the United States to build a military base on one of the islands, which led to the eviction of over 1,500 people, according to human rights organizations.

Over time, the Chagos Islands, now known as the British Indian Ocean Territory, received the country code IO and in 1997 were assigned the corresponding .io domain. The British government granted the rights to sell .io domains to the Internet Computer Bureau (ICB), according to a 2014 report.

Generally, it is expected that a government will receive revenue from the websites registered with its country code domain. For example, Anguilla, with the country code AI, was projected to generate between $25 million and $30 million last year from the registration of websites with the .ai domain. One might think that the Chagos Islands would receive similar revenue from the .io domain, given that numerous tech startups and cryptocurrency companies, such as itch.io, greenhouse.io, and opensea.io, have adopted this domain, which is also associated with "input/output."

However, Paul Kane, who previously led the ICB, mentioned that the British government collected part of those revenues, which surprised the Chagossian population. In 2020, the Chagossians filed a claim for ownership of what they considered a $50 million asset.

Now, the treaty finalized by the UK will integrate the Chagos Islands into Mauritius, a decision that, according to the Chagossians, the government did not consult the population about. As a result of this change, the British Indian Ocean Territory will cease to exist, raising questions about the future of the .io domain.

As noted, the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) has a procedure for retiring old country code domains within five years, with the possibility of extensions. This measure was adopted after the dissolution of the Soviet Union when the .su domain was commonly used among cybercriminals.

Since then, IANA has also had to retire the .yu domain, previously used by Yugoslavia, which continued to operate for years after the country fragmented. Although the Solomon Islands, an independent country, has the .sb domain, reflecting its past as a British protectorate, this was registered long after achieving independence. The UK still holds the inactive .gb domain but is considering getting rid of it.

For now, it is complicated to predict what will happen to the .io domain: whether it will go through a transition period similar to that of .yu or whether IANA will allow the Chagossians to retain it. Attempts were made to contact Identity Digital, the domain registrar that previously obtained the rights to sell .io, as well as IANA, seeking information about the future of .io, without receiving an immediate response.