Popular .io Domain Faces Closure

Due to the UK's renunciation of sovereignty over the Chagos Archipelago.

On October 3, the British government announced that it was giving up sovereignty over a small tropical atoll in the Indian Ocean known as the Chagos Islands. The islands would be handed over to the neighboring island country of Mauritius. This decision could have an unexpected effect on the Internet, as it threatens the existence of the .io domain, writes the Every publication.

The domain .io has been a constant presence in the tech sphere. It is tied to the British Indian Ocean Territory, a British Overseas Territory consisting of the Chagos Archipelago.

Once this treaty between Britain and Mauritius is signed, the British Indian Ocean Territory will cease to exist. Various international bodies will update their records. In particular, the International Standard for Organization (ISO) will remove country code “IO” from its specification.

The Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA), which creates and delegates top-level domains, uses this specification to determine which top-level country domains should exist. Once IO is removed, the IANA will refuse to allow any new registrations with a .io domain. However, even IANA itself does not yet know what fate awaits .io.

Kim Davis, vice president of IANA Services, told Computerworld there are several potential ways out of the situation. Consultations with Mauritius would be a start, but if negotiations fail, the domain would be phased out over a five-year period, during which time .io sites would have to migrate to a successor domain or some other domain.

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