Unfortunately the IANA decided to kill the TLD altogether, but the Chagos islanders have been asking to get control of it themselves so they can receive the registration fees. This was sort of the worst of both worlds: they could have given the Chagos islands it’s own TLD, or given control of .io to the Chagos islanders, but instead they just said, “you’re not sovereign, so you get nothing”.
edit: I’m reading elsewhere that it’s not yet decided for sure whether to kill the TLD, but no one seems to think it will be given to the Chagossians, unfortunately.
Technically, they haven’t yet. In the past they’ve sometimes transitioned ownership of country-code TLDs over (like the Soviet Union’s .su to Russia). I think they just don’t want to wade into the debate over the Chagos Islands in general.
Two letters TLD like .io are ISO country codes. Catalonia’s .cat is a generic TLD in comparison. Since .io stands for the British Indian Ocean Territory and Chagos Island isn’t going to be ‘separate’ anymore by becoming part of Mauritius, IANA’s logic is that the ccTLD has to be retired. That .su is still around after the collapse of USSR isn’t a valid argument for them.
Unfortunately the IANA decided to kill the TLD altogether, but the Chagos islanders have been asking to get control of it themselves so they can receive the registration fees. This was sort of the worst of both worlds: they could have given the Chagos islands it’s own TLD, or given control of .io to the Chagos islanders, but instead they just said, “you’re not sovereign, so you get nothing”.
edit: I’m reading elsewhere that it’s not yet decided for sure whether to kill the TLD, but no one seems to think it will be given to the Chagossians, unfortunately.
I don’t get why they killed it. some regional areas have their own TLD. .cat for Catalonia, for example.
Technically, they haven’t yet. In the past they’ve sometimes transitioned ownership of country-code TLDs over (like the Soviet Union’s .su to Russia). I think they just don’t want to wade into the debate over the Chagos Islands in general.
Two letters TLD like
.ioare ISO country codes. Catalonia’s.catis a generic TLD in comparison. Since.iostands for the British Indian Ocean Territory and Chagos Island isn’t going to be ‘separate’ anymore by becoming part of Mauritius, IANA’s logic is that the ccTLD has to be retired. That.suis still around after the collapse of USSR isn’t a valid argument for them.ok. I was not aware the two letter TLD were more restricted than the others. thanks!