It looks like the TLD was sold off to a private business by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority in 1997, with those rights subsequently being sold on to other corporations.
The British government have issued an FOI response advising that they recieve no funds from .io domain registrations. The Chagos Islanders still don’t benefit, but it looks like that’d need to be squared with a hedge fund rather than a government.
…It is weird that territorial domains can be auctioned off in the first place though.
True. Also, Montenegro is a member of Nato with chances of becoming an EU member this decade, I regularly (well, whenever something like this .ml thing pops up, which is surprisingly common) check the political state of Montenegro :D
At least Montenegro profits from .me
The Chagos Islanders get nothing from .io which is controlled by their oppressive colonizers.
It looks like the TLD was sold off to a private business by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority in 1997, with those rights subsequently being sold on to other corporations.
The British government have issued an FOI response advising that they recieve no funds from .io domain registrations. The Chagos Islanders still don’t benefit, but it looks like that’d need to be squared with a hedge fund rather than a government.
…It is weird that territorial domains can be auctioned off in the first place though.
I’d forgotten that detail. IANA couldn’t have sold it to a British businessman without the permission of the Brits as they ruled over the territory.
Chagos Islanders want it but I doubt they will ever get it.
True. Also, Montenegro is a member of Nato with chances of becoming an EU member this decade, I regularly (well, whenever something like this
.mlthing pops up, which is surprisingly common) check the political state of Montenegro :D