4 ms·

The biggest concern I've seen over the .io TLD is that it's the ccTLD for a territory ("British Indian Ocean Territory") whose existence / sovereignty is fragil

The biggest concern I've seen over the .io TLD is that it's the ccTLD for a territory ("British Indian Ocean Territory") whose existence / sovereignty is fragile. The people who originally lived in this territory were forcibly expelled in the 1970s – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expulsion_of_the_Chagossians https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expulsion_of_the_Chagossians – so there are problems from two points of view: ethically this doesn't sit right with a lot of folks, but even from a pragmatic point of view, the UNGA adopted a resolution in 2019 specifying that the UK should withdraw its administration from the territory – this has not yet occurred, and it is uncertain what could/would happen with the ccTLD if or when it does.

micah94 4y ago
"Island of Shame" by David Vine really gets into the details of this if you really want to know the history. Spoiler: The United States fully controls this territory because of the (very active and strategically important) military base. The UK ownership is just a cover... (an entire book could be written just about this alone) Also, the people brought there were slaves. No one lived on the islands originally. This is why the various governments felt they could move these people where ever they wanted. The people became self-sufficient, of course. Then were forceably moved to Mauritius and other places, given a stipend, but no land or access to any resources when the US military expanded their base. Basically dumped the people into ghettos. This is still a very open wound in 2023.