Be Cautious When Choosing a Top-Level Domain

Author: Gareth Edwards

Translation: Deep Tide TechFlow

Introduction

If you look closely, you'll find that many projects in the cryptocurrency space have website domains ending with .io.

Not just in the crypto space, .io domains are also often favored by emerging tech companies; from github.io to numerous innovative startups, .io seems to have become a trend symbol in the tech world.

The UK government recently announced the transfer of sovereignty over the Chagos Islands to Mauritius. This seemingly distant diplomatic decision could lead to the disappearance of the .io domain.

This article will take you deep into this event, revealing the little-known connections between the digital world and real-world politics, as well as the profound impact it may have on the tech industry.

The original content is as follows:

Gareth Edwards, who typically documents the forgotten history of Silicon Valley in his column "The Madman."

When the UK government announced last week the transfer of sovereignty over an island in the Indian Ocean to Mauritius, Gareth immediately recognized its digital implications: the end of the .io domain suffix.

In this article, he explores how geopolitical changes can unexpectedly disrupt the digital world. His exploration of historical precedents—such as the dissolution of the Soviet Union—provides valuable context for tech founders, users, and observers. Read this article to understand the unexpected intersections of international relations and internet infrastructure.

On October 3, the UK government announced it would relinquish sovereignty over a tropical atoll in the Indian Ocean known as the Chagos Islands. These islands will be transferred to the neighboring island nation of Mauritius, located about 1,100 miles off the southeast coast of Africa.

This story hasn't made tech news, but perhaps it should have.

The decision to transfer these islands to new owners will result in the loss of one of the tech and gaming industry's preferred top-level domains: .io.

Whether it's Github.io, the gaming site itch.io, or Google I/O (which arguably started the trend in 2008), .io has been a regular in the tech lexicon. Its popularity is sometimes explained as representing the abbreviation for "input/output," or any system that receives and processes data.

But what people often fail to acknowledge is that it is not just a playful domain. It is a country code top-level domain (ccTLD), which means the political factors involved extend far beyond the digital world.

Since 1968, the UK and the US have operated a major military base on the Chagos Islands (officially known as the British Indian Ocean Territory), but neighboring Mauritius has long contested British sovereignty. The Mauritian government has long argued that the UK illegally retained control when Mauritius gained independence. This dispute has lasted over 50 years and has finally been resolved. In return for the 99-year lease of the military base, these islands will become part of Mauritius.

Once the treaty is signed, the British Indian Ocean Territory will cease to exist. International organizations will update their records. In particular, the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) will remove the country code "IO" from its specifications. The Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) creates and delegates top-level domains, using this specification to determine which top-level country domains should exist. Once IO is removed, IANA will reject any new .io domain registrations. It will also automatically begin the process of deactivating existing ones. (There are currently no official statistics on the number of existing .io domains.)

Officially, .io and countless websites will disappear. In an era where some domain names can reach millions of dollars in value, this is a shocking reminder that forces outside the internet still influence our digital lives.

When Domain Names Outlast Countries

It is very rare to remove an entire country or territory from the world map, so one might wonder why the process of deleting a domain name has such a clear record.

The answer is simple: history.

There are two organizations responsible for domains and internet addresses. IANA decides what should and should not become a top-level domain, such as .com, .org, .uk, or .nz. The organization originated at the University of Southern California but was not formally established until 1994 when it won a contract from the US. As the internet grew, it became clear that a more formal setup was needed. By 1998, IANA became part of a new organization: the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). Headquartered in the US, ICANN was given broader responsibilities to oversee the operational stability of the internet and ensure international interests were represented.

These two organizations may seem to play mundane roles. But they find themselves making some of the toughest decisions on the global internet.

On September 19, 1990, IANA created the top-level domain .su and delegated it to the Soviet Union. Less than a year later, the Soviet Union dissolved. At that time, no one thought about what would happen to the .su domain—the internet as we know it would take many more years to develop. Thus, the .su domain was transferred to Russia, operating alongside Russia's own domain (.ru). The Russian government agreed that it would eventually be shut down, but there were no clear rules surrounding its governance or when it should happen.

However, ambiguity is the worst thing for top-level domains. Unbeknownst to anyone, this decision created an environment that made .su a digital Wild West. Today, it is a top-level domain with almost no policing, a home for deniable Russian dark operations, a place for supremacist content and cybercrime.

Years later, in 1992, IANA learned a similar painful lesson when Yugoslavia split into several smaller countries at the end of the Balkan Wars. After this, Serbia and Montenegro attempted to adopt the name "Federal Republic of Yugoslavia." Slovenia and Croatia objected, claiming that it meant Serbia and Montenegro were the legitimate successors of Yugoslavia. The two countries lodged protests with the United Nations.

Throughout the early 1990s, the international issue of the names of Serbia and Montenegro was contentious, and IANA was still uncertain who should control .yu, the top-level domain for Yugoslavia. Email access and the internet had become indispensable for research and international discussions, and IANA's ambiguity led to an unusual case of academic espionage.

According to journalist Kaloyan Kolev, Slovenian scholars traveled to Serbia in late 1992. Their destination was the University of Belgrade. Upon arrival, they broke into the university and stole all the hosting software and domain records for the top-level domain .yu, which was everything they needed to seize control. For the next two years, the .yu domain was informally operated by ARNES (the Academic and Research Network of Slovenia), which repeatedly denied its involvement in the initial heist.

ARNES rejected all requests from Serbian authorities for the new domain, severely limiting the country's ability to participate in the growing internet community. The situation became so chaotic that in 1994, IANA's founding manager Jon Postel personally intervened and overturned IANA regulations, forcibly transferring ownership of the .yu domain back to the University of Belgrade.

In 2006, Montenegro declared independence from Serbia. As the digital revolution progressed steadily, IANA was determined not to let chaos reign again. It created two new top-level domains: .rs for Serbia and .me for Montenegro. The issuance of both versions required that .yu be officially terminated. This did not happen until 2010, but IANA ultimately got its way. After experiencing these events, the organization established a new set of stricter rules and timelines for the expiration of top-level domains that exist today.

These rules will soon apply to the .io domain. They are firm, and they are clear. Ideally, within three to five years, once the country code no longer exists, the domain must also cease to exist. Just as tenants are told their landlord is selling the house and they must move out, every individual and company using a .io domain will be informed of the same thing.

The Persistence of Real-World History

.io is popular among startups, especially those involved in cryptocurrency. These businesses often identify with one of the internet's original principles—cyberspace grants users a sense of independence.

However, the long tail of real-world history may force them to make significant changes.

IANA could fabricate its own rules allowing .io to continue to exist. Money talks, and a lot of money is tied to .io domains. However, the histories of the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia remain prominent, and IANA may feel that a rapid and loose approach to top-level domains will only come back to haunt it.

Whatever happens, the warning for future tech founders is clear: be cautious when choosing a top-level domain. Real-world history has never been as separate from our digital future as we might imagine.

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