The Chagos Archipelago and the .io domainKim Davies

The governments of Mauritius and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland recently announced that sovereignty over the Chagos Archipelago will move to Mauritius, following years of negotiations. A treaty must first be signed and ratified by both countries; reportedly this is not expected until late 2025 at the earliest.

This development has invited significant curiosity and speculation about what this means for the ".io" top-level domain. The IO code is designated for the British Indian Ocean Territory, which is coterminous with the Chagos Archipelago, a remote cluster of islands approximately halfway between Mauritius and India.

The designation of country-code top-level domain names is tied to the underlying existence of the country or territory they are designated to represent. As discussed in the past, we rely upon a neutral international standard known as ISO 3166-1 to make all determinations on countries and territories, and their associated two-letter encodings. Management of those domains is then vested with trustees located in the associated country, who are given significant authority to operate the domain under local oversight.

In this case, "IO" persists in the ISO 3166-1 standard and there has been no change to the standard as a result of the announcement.

Should the sovereignty of the Chagos Archipelago ultimately change, it is likely to trigger an evaluation of the circumstances by the committee that maintains the ISO 3166-1 standard. Consider that while use of the standard is particularly notable when it comes to Internet domain names, it is used for a variety of applications, such as encodings for passports, currency, radio communications, postal mail, and customs boundaries. The needs of the many different applications of the standards are considered when making code change assessments.

Assuming "IO" is retained to continue to encode the future status of the Chagos Archipelago, there is a consideration that is particular to ICANN policies. Country-code top-level domains are operated for the benefit of the country or territory they represent. Managers of these domains must maintain an operational nexus with that country to ensure they have appropriate local accountability mechanisms for how the domain name is operated. Should this jurisdictional change take effect, changes may be required to ensure proper accountability to the new country.

There is a possibility that "IO" may be removed as an assigned code in the ISO 3166-1 standard. Should this happen, ICANN's community-developed retirement policy will apply. In essence, a five-year time window will commence during which time usage of the domain will need to be phased out. That time window might be extended under certain circumstances.

At this time, however, much of the discussion about .io is simply speculation. Should this change in the future, those changes will be well communicated. It is not a foregone conclusion that a change in sovereignty will result in a change to the .io domain, but if that result comes to pass, ICANN policy provides a great deal of time for the community to adapt to any changes.