Paris MarxI didn’t realize how valuable domains can be to small countries. Anguilla, which owns .ai, gets a third of its government’s monthly budget from domain sales. Tuvalu, which owns .tv, could make $10 million a year from the domain, allowing it to pave its roads and expand electricity access.
vantiss
Bruno Girin@parismarx I wish they told the whole story about the .io domain. It is uninhabited because the native islanders were evicted by force: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chagos_Archipelago
As a result, the profits on .io go to the UK government, not a small island nation.
The islanders were expelled to allow the US and UK governments to build a joint military base on Diego Garcia.
Mike Knell@brunogirin @parismarx The guy who is squatting .io has claimed that he has an agreement with the Foreign Office and that the UK government gets some of the proceeds, but the UK government has denied this on multiple occasions. God knows what's really going on - half of me suspects the "UK Government" in this case is actually the private bank account of some dodgy official who helped squatter dude out with some Foreign Office headed notepaper or something to help him take control of it.
@brunogirin @parismarx That whole article is uncritical shite, though. They include Italy in their list, which is hardly a small economy that can afford to build roads thanks to .it registrations, and make no comment whatsoever on *any* of the shady dealings and sometimes just out-and-out piracy which saw those domains handed over to dodgy white people in the first place. Is "whitesaviourwashing" a word?
ckohtalaThe article also glosses over what happened in Tuvalu after the tv domain was sold. I remember reading this way back in 2005:
"Many Tuvaluns... discovered that the maintenance of their new vehicles was far beyond their means, and that the luxury itself is hardly necessary in a state that is just 26 sq km. A huge area at the centre of the tropical paradise is now covered with abandoned cars and other rubbish."
https://www.theguardian.com/theguardian/2005/mar/04/features11.g21
That sinking feeling
Tuvalu, population 11,000, was the world's third-poorest state until an internet deal made it rich overnight. Then came dire warnings that global warming would soon flood the islands. So what did the natives do with their windfall? Lay new roads and start building discos. By Daphna Baram.
Julian@brunogirin @parismarx For everyone else wondering: It's .io for "Indian Ocean".
Syulang@julian @brunogirin @parismarx Thanks, I was wondering how they got .io from either "Chagos" or "Diego Garcia" .
@brunogirin @parismarx The whole story of the Chagos Islands is a lesson in the hierarchy of colonialism in the "postcolonial" era.
Colonialism isn't a legacy. It's an ongoing horror, no different from a hundred years ago.