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The original was posted on /r/selfhosted by /u/JimmyRecard on 2024-10-21 19:49:15+00:00.

Well, “soon” in Valve time.

.io is not a gTLD, but a ccTLD belonging to a “country” known as British Indian Ocean Territory, consisting mainly of Chagos Archipelago.

Due to a recent deal to transfer the sovereignty of Chagos Archipelago back to Mauritius in an effort to begin to right a historic wrong, it is quite likely that the entity known as British Indian Ocean Territory will cease to exist, and with it, if Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) is to be believed, the .io ccTLD itself.

Now, will IANA simply turn off the tap on all the .io domains? Who knows. They’re supposed to. There will be a transition period and all.

.io is, as we all know, quite popular TLD, and the vast majority of its uses are unrelated to the Indian Ocean territories. It’d be silly to just shut it down like the much less popular .yu and .su, but unless something changes, this is what the rules say is supposed to happen.

So, there is no reason to panic. It’ll be years until there is any real impact, if ever.

But, if you’re buying a new domain today, maybe steer clear from an .io domain for now.

Or if you’ve got a 15-year-old mail server that never gets blocked by the Big Tech because it has an impeccable reputation, it might be the time to consider what your off-ramp will be in 5 years time should worse come to worst.

If you’ve not had your fill of the exciting world of ccTLD news, you may peruse either the official IANA ccTLD retirement policy or have a gander at the Every Newsletter article which, as far as I can tell, blew the lid on this story.