Itch.io creator says site is prepared for possible retirement of .io domain

Yesterday, indie developers took to social media with concerns about the possible end of the .io domain, used by Itch.io, Github.io, and the URLs for a number of tech and game industry websites. The domain (assigned to the UK-occupied Chagos Islands by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority) is likely to be retired following a recently signed UK treaty that will transfer the territory to the nearby nation of Mauritius.

The transfer of the territory has far greater implications for the current and former residents, but the knock-on effect caused developers to worry over the fate of the independent games distribution site.

Good news: the site's management says they're prepared to deal with the situation.

In an email to Game Developer, site creator Leaf Corcoran said that users shouldn’t worry about the site going away. "We're keeping an eye on how things pan out," he wrote. "No plans to do anything at the moment but switching domain names is always an option should the .io domain no longer exist."

The transfer of the Chagos Islands ends decades of British colonial rule and displacement

As pointed out by Every contributor Gareth Edwards, it's unknown at this time how the IANA will handle the reassignment of the .io domain. But the possibility of its shutdown is a reminder of how the ripple effects of 20th century colonialism can shake the internet today.

In 1968, the UK and the US forcibly removed the Chagossian people from their homes so that the United States could build a military base on the island, in a move that has since been labeled a crime against humanity. Since 1997, the Chagos Islands, or British Indian Ocean Territory, have been assigned the matching .io domain, which houses essential game developer resource sites like Github.

With the Indian Ocean territory soon ceasing to exist, sites using the domain now face an uncertain future.

It’s a move that hasn’t just caused online chaos. The Chagossian people were surprised by the island's sudden handover, with many expressing anger at having no say in the treaty that would determine their sovereignty. Though developers were justified in worrying about a vital distribution platform, it's a reminder that for the island's current and former residents, the stakes of this change are far, far greater.