Why ".io" Means More Than You Think

Most tech-savvy folks recognize .io as a sleek domain suffix. It’s popular, punchy, and often signals a tech-forward product. It’s shorthand for input/output—clean, geeky, efficient.

But here’s what most people don’t know:

".io" is the country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for the British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT)—a territory with no indigenous population anymore, because the indigenous people were forcibly removed.

Between 1967 and 1973, the British government expelled over 1,500 Chagossians—the entire population of the Chagos Archipelago—to clear the way for a US military base on Diego Garcia. Families were given no warning. Many were put on cargo ships and dumped in Mauritius and the Seychelles, where they lived in poverty and fought for decades just to be recognized.

Since then, the .io domain has been commercialized and used by tech companies around the world. Millions of dollars in domain revenue have flowed to registrars and to the UK government. Meanwhile, not a single cent has gone to the Chagossian people. They remain displaced, and the UK continues to ignore multiple international court rulings that have declared the UK's continued control of the BIOT illegal.

Why we chose .io anyway

This site, stolenaletheia.io, is about stolen truths. About reclaiming power. About facing uncomfortable realities and forcing them into the light. Using .io is not an aesthetic choice. It’s a deliberate statement.

We are using a colonial domain to talk about truth, autonomy, and reclamation. And we’re not pretending it’s clean.

This domain was stolen. Just like Aletheia. Just like the islands.

Learn More, Share More

• "That's When the Nightmare Started" – Human Rights Watch
• International Court of Justice opinion on BIOT
• Government accused of profiting from sales of Chagos Islands '.io' domain name – The Independent

That final link is from 2014. This is not a new revelation. It has only gone unheard by the masses.

Let’s be loud about it, now.