this post was submitted on 23 Sep 2024

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don't buy .io domains rule (lemmy.blahaj.zone)

submitted 3 weeks ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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[Start of transcript]

Screenshot of a tumblr post

nyancrimew posts:
remember .io games? that was 8 years ago

therealkepler replies:
nowadays the only people that use the .io domain are technology sites

nyancrimew replies:
ok so .io is a "fun" lesson in colonialism and technology, like all two letter top level domains (yes all of them) it's a country domain belonging to a country, io being the british indian oceans territory, an archipelago in the indian ocean. .io domains became so trendy because they're easily marketable to tech people (io can stand for input/output), it looks kinda cool and at the time domains with .io were highly available with not many websites being created on the islands.

however .io is not like other small islands with highly wanted tlds such as .ai or .to, where the islands make millions off of domain sales and can rely on them as a big pillar of their economy. all profits from .io sales go to the UK, and despite a fight to get control over their tld the islands get nothing, not only did the native population get displaced in land deals and colonialism but their colonizer also heavily profits off of the territories sudden (indirect) trendyness with tech startups.

don't buy .io domains, don't support the british empire.

[End of transcript]

(page 2) 14 comments

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[–] [email protected] 30 points 3 weeks ago

It's not like a internet domain is a natural resource of any territory.

They are just made up by icann.

[–] [email protected] 106 points 3 weeks ago (4 children)

Look, not defending colonialism, but the British Indian Ocean Territory doesn't have a native population anymore. 100% of those living on the island are UK and US military personnel. For the past 50 years it's been a military base.

The largest chunk of the revenue from .io domain sales go to Name.com, who owns the ccTLD, with only a small portion going to the UK government after ICANN et al takes their piece. There are only 270K registered .io domains, averaging $36/year in registration fees each, so the whole pie is less than $10M annually.

The circumstances leading to this arrangement are completely indefensible, and there is a movement to grant the right of return to the surviving Chagossians and their families, including a 2021 UN resolution rejecting the sovereignty of the UK over the islands.

If you actually want to support the surviving Chagossian people, get involved in international political activism and fight for their right to return to their homeland. If they should succeed, they will be entitled to their own ccTLD that they can profit from freely like other small countries, and the .io ccTLD could face termination as result of BIOT no longer being a legal territory - though, not strictly, the Soviet Union's .su ccTLD still exists today, and it could be beneficial to transfer ownership of the ccTLD to the Chagossians, but that can only happen after they are able to reclaim their territory.

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[–] [email protected] 240 points 3 weeks ago (24 children)

I looked up the Wikipedia page.

The only inhabitants are British and United States military personnel, and associated contractors

Oh, ok. That's not too bad actually.

The forced removal of Chagossians from the Chagos Archipelago occurred between 1968 and 1973.

Oh.

Today, the Chagossians are still trying to return, but the UK government has repeatedly denied them the right of return despite calls from numerous human rights organisations to let them.

Ooohhh....

On 3 November 2022, it was announced that the UK and Mauritius had decided to begin negotiations on sovereignty over the British Indian Ocean Territory, taking into account the international legal proceedings.

Ok, getting better...

However, in December 2023, it was reported that the UK government was planning to discontinue the talks.

Oh, it's worse, actually.

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[–] [email protected] 123 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

Same for .nu, the TLD for Niue, which is used by businesses in the Netherlands, Denmark and Sweden, where "nu" means "now". It's been taken over by a Swedish company, and they, backed by the Swedish government, refuse to give it back or share the profits, saying it's "essential for Swedish internet infrastructure". Colonialism at it's finest.

And just for context: Niue has about 1500-2000 inhabitants, and it is estimated that they missed out on about $150 million in revenue since 2013. That's $100000 per capita, and a revenue stream that's more than their entire GDP.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Is this true of .ai? Anguilla owns it and is a British territory.

[–] [email protected] 29 points 3 weeks ago

The government of Anguilla collects those ones. The situation in the BIOT is beyond "just" that it got colonised. In the 60s, Britain kicked out the entire population to make room for naval infrastructure, so there is not an actual local government left there. Those people and their descendents mostly live in the UK and Mauritius now. They have been fighting in court to get their islands back, though without success yet. Mauritius also claims the islands, as they were part of British Mauritius up until Mauritian independence

[–] [email protected] 12 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

I'm not sure .io should even exist. Why would the Chagossians call themselves anything that would abbreviate to "IO" to begin with?

[–] [email protected] 8 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Because it's the British Indian Ocean Territory and the British colonizers called them that. Fuck them.

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[–] [email protected] 63 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (4 children)

Always interesting to see the remnants of the old empires. Countries like the UK and France still having little splatters of control across the world like the last bits of black mould you can't reach.

I'm curious, are places like Hawai'i seeing similar movements? I know that area has a bit of an odd history.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 3 weeks ago (3 children)

Hawaii isn't its own country, it's a US state (and not a territory like Puerto Rico, for example), so it's been integrated into the American empire and independence isn't likely. I don't know if it could survive as an independent nation or if residents want to try though.

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[–] [email protected] 24 points 3 weeks ago (3 children)

Don’t a lot of these smaller territories actually want to be part of Britain though?

While it may not be perfect, if you’re a very small territory then having Britain as security is probably a good thing at this point.

As much as people like to rag on Britain, it’s really not that bad in the modern day.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 weeks ago

They'll squash a threat to Bitian and it's reputation but I doubt they give a shit about the islands inhabitants, if they did they wouldn't keep all of the money from .Io domains. I don't know that potential security over having your own government is preferable. I'd say this is a great example of how British colonialism is still bad in the modern day.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 3 weeks ago

Several do, yes, but this isn't one of them. The BIOT is a particularly grim case and a stain on our country to this day

[–] [email protected] 17 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

I'd imagine EU or NATO style relationships are probably healthier. I know there have been some pushes for a 'Commonwealth EU' in the past that haven't gotten far for a myriad of reasons.

There's also the fact that I'm sure even the citizens of these countries can't agree on the matter.

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