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[Start of transcript]
Screenshot of a tumblr post
nyancrimew posts:
remember .io games? that was 8 years ago
therealkepler replies:
nowadays the only people that use the .io domain are technology sites
nyancrimew replies:
ok so .io is a "fun" lesson in colonialism and technology, like all two letter top level domains (yes all of them) it's a country domain belonging to a country, io being the british indian oceans territory, an archipelago in the indian ocean. .io domains became so trendy because they're easily marketable to tech people (io can stand for input/output), it looks kinda cool and at the time domains with .io were highly available with not many websites being created on the islands.
however .io is not like other small islands with highly wanted tlds such as .ai or .to, where the islands make millions off of domain sales and can rely on them as a big pillar of their economy. all profits from .io sales go to the UK, and despite a fight to get control over their tld the islands get nothing, not only did the native population get displaced in land deals and colonialism but their colonizer also heavily profits off of the territories sudden (indirect) trendyness with tech startups.
don't buy .io domains, don't support the british empire.
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Same for .nu, the TLD for Niue, which is used by businesses in the Netherlands, Denmark and Sweden, where "nu" means "now". It's been taken over by a Swedish company, and they, backed by the Swedish government, refuse to give it back or share the profits, saying it's "essential for Swedish internet infrastructure". Colonialism at it's finest.
And just for context: Niue has about 1500-2000 inhabitants, and it is estimated that they missed out on about $150 million in revenue since 2013. That's $100000 per capita, and a revenue stream that's more than their entire GDP.