At the end of last week, the governments of Great Britain and Mauritius issued a joint statement on the future of the Chagos Archipelago. Mauritius was a British colony for a long time. It gained independence in 1968, but the British retained control of the Chagos Archipelago, which historically belonged to Mauritius. Moreover, all the indigenous inhabitants were evicted and transported to Mauritius and the Seychelles. This was done to make way for a joint US-British military base established on the largest island of the archipelago, Diego Garcia, which exists to this day.
For many years, Mauritius sought to reclaim sovereignty over the archipelago. Its efforts were supported by the International Court of Justice and the UN General Assembly. However, the British authorities have only recently agreed to restore justice. In a joint statement, the two countries’ governments announced that the transfer of sovereignty over the Chagos Archipelago “will correct the mistakes of the past.” The indigenous people and their descendants will be able to return to their homeland. However, Diego Garcia will be an exception, as it will remain leased to the UK for the next 99 years.
While the agreement is a welcome development, it could have unpredictable implications for the domain industry. ICANN delegates ccTLDs to countries and territories according to two-letter codes approved by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). While the archipelago was under UK control, it was designated as the British Indian Ocean Territory, with the two-letter code IO on the ISO list, along with the corresponding national domain. This domain is very popular among technology companies, since the abbreviation IO is widely used in programming: it stands for input/output. The registry does not disclose any information on the number of registrations, but, based on figures from its financial reports, the number of domains in .IO may be around one million.
Now the future of these domains is uncertain. It is difficult to imagine that Mauritius would want to retain a name that reminds it of the British ownership of the archipelago. However, if the name changes, IO will be removed from the ISO list. In this case, ICANN will give the new owners of the country or territory 5 to 10 years to change the national domain, after which the old domain will be subject to deletion. It cannot be ruled out that the UK and Mauritius have addressed the fate of the .IO domain in their agreement. So far, this information has not been made public, and we can only speculate about it. Registrants in the domain zone undoubtedly have reason to be concerned. However, Domain Incite reports that exceptions to ICANN rules are possible. For example, the Soviet Union ceased to exist more than 30 years ago, yet the .SU domain continues to exist and enjoys considerable popularity.
