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.io safe for now as Trump puts Chagos deal on ice
The uncertainty surrounding the future of .io domains is set to continue after the UK government froze its plans to cede sovereignty of the Chagos Islands due to lack of US support.
The UK has run out of time to pass legislation approving the treaty that would give Chagos to Mauritius in the current parliamentary session, which ends about a month from now.
It is reported that there are no plans to make a successor bill part of the King’s Speech — in which the government sets out its legislative agenda for the next session — on May 13.
The delay is believed to have come because the Trump administration, which has been blowing hot and cold on the issue since it came into power last year, has so far withheld its formal written consent.
That’s necessary for the treaty to pass because the largest of the Chagos archipelago, Diego Garcia, is home to a US-UK military base strategically important for American bombing raids in the Middle East.
Chagos, officially the British Indian Ocean Territory, owns the ccTLD .io, popular among tech startups. It’s managed by a UK-based Identity Digital subsidiary that makes over $40 million a year from registrations.
The UK’s decision to cede control of BIOT, following international human rights rulings, raised the spectre of .io ultimately being replaced or retired under ICANN’s rules governing ccTLDs.
While UK ministers have denied over the weekend that the Chagos deal is fully dead, its future seems to be dependent on Donald Trump, or his successor, changing the US position on the treaty.
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