In recent days, several articles have been circulating alerting about the possible disappearance of .io domains due to a treaty between the United Kingdom and Mauritius. However, it is unlikely that owners of domains under this extension will lose their records immediately.
What is happening?
The .io domain is a country code top-level domain (ccTLD), representing a two-letter code assigned to a specific territory. In this case, the .io domain belongs to the British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT), a British overseas territory located in the Indian Ocean.
Recently, the United Kingdom has agreed to cede control of BIOT to Mauritius following an agreement between the two countries. This has raised doubts about the future of the .io domain, as the disappearance of a territory could theoretically lead to the withdrawal of its corresponding country code.
What implications does this treaty have for .io domains?
The ISO 3166-1 standard determines which two-letter codes are assigned to territories and countries, and ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) relies on this standard to manage country code top-level domains. If the ISO were to eliminate the .io code, theoretically, a domain withdrawal process would begin, similar to what happened with other geographical domains like .yu for Yugoslavia.
However, ICANN’s main goal is to ensure the stability and security of the domain name system. The withdrawal of a popular domain like .io, used by thousands of companies and technological projects globally, could have a significant impact on the digital ecosystem.
Likely scenarios
Although the possibility of the .io domain disappearing is real, the likelihood of this happening in the short term is low. In the past, domains like .su, corresponding to the dissolved Soviet Union, continued to exist even after the country’s dissolution. Today, there are still over 100,000 active .su domains.
One possible scenario is that the .io domain will be managed by Mauritius after the change of sovereignty, or an agreement will be reached between Mauritius and Identity Digital, the company currently managing the .io domain. In this case, there could be an increase in registration and renewal fees for .io domains.
What risks exist for other ccTLD domains?
The .io domain situation has alerted users of country code top-level domains (ccTLDs) since many of these are linked to territories or countries with unstable political conditions. For example, the .so domain for Somalia has been used by companies like Notion, but Somalia is a country with significant political instability. Likewise, .ly, belonging to Libya, also poses similar risks.
Another case is the .ai domain, which has gained popularity among artificial intelligence companies. However, this domain belongs to the small island of Anguilla, which depends on a single person to manage domain policies.
In summary
Despite the uncertainty generated by the treaty between the United Kingdom and Mauritius, it is improbable that the .io domain will disappear in the coming years. Owners of .io domains can rest assured for now, although it is always advisable to stay informed about possible future implications and consider alternatives in case geopolitical changes affect their records.
The history of other geographical domains shows that, although these changes are possible, they usually have long transition periods that allow users to adapt. Therefore, the .io domain, which has been widely adopted by tech startups and digital companies, appears to be safe, at least for now.