this post was submitted on 23 Sep 2024
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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.

[End of transcript]

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[–] [email protected] 234 points 2 months ago (5 children)

I looked up the Wikipedia page.

The only inhabitants are British and United States military personnel, and associated contractors

Oh, ok. That's not too bad actually.

The forced removal of Chagossians from the Chagos Archipelago occurred between 1968 and 1973.

Oh.

Today, the Chagossians are still trying to return, but the UK government has repeatedly denied them the right of return despite calls from numerous human rights organisations to let them.

Ooohhh....

On 3 November 2022, it was announced that the UK and Mauritius had decided to begin negotiations on sovereignty over the British Indian Ocean Territory, taking into account the international legal proceedings.

Ok, getting better...

However, in December 2023, it was reported that the UK government was planning to discontinue the talks.

Oh, it's worse, actually.

[–] pyre 63 points 2 months ago (2 children)

i can't believe the country whose biggest exhibit is of all the artifacts it's stolen from other cultures would be so inconsiderate to other cultures.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

....and changed for the absolute worst in recent years.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 2 months ago (1 children)

What is the actual reason for this?
That's disgraceful, to say the least.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 2 months ago (1 children)

The island is probably a good location for a military naval base in the Pacific.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 2 months ago

Surprisingly, the British Indian Ocean Territory is not in the Pacific ocean, but the Indian Ocean.

Being serious though, yeah, it's a really good strategic location

[–] Graphy 10 points 2 months ago (1 children)

There’s a behind the bastards two parter on this topic

https://youtu.be/efzS1Jc7TX0

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 months ago

Omg I never knew BtB was on YouTube. I've listened to the podcast so much, feels surreal to see them talking.

[–] RunawayFixer 7 points 2 months ago

The UK also created a marine protected island around the Chagos archipelago islands in 2010. Someone put a nice summary of it's goals on Wikipedia: "The primary purpose of the designation as a marine reserve was to create an excuse to deny the native Chagossian people the right of return. Unlike true marine reserves, the area is heavily polluted by the nearby military base, which is exempt from all restrictions imposed on the area. " That this was the actual intent is not just speculation, it's been confirmed by Wikileaks.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chagos_Marine_Protected_Area

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago

Here we call them "cookies"