According to TechFlow, on October 3, the British government announced that it would give up its sovereignty over the Chagos Archipelago and transfer it to Mauritius. Once the treaty is signed, the British Indian Ocean Territory will cease to exist and international organizations will update their records.

Previously, the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) assigned .io as a country code top-level domain (ccTLD) to the British Indian Ocean Territory. The return of the Chagos Archipelago will cause the British Indian Ocean Territory to disappear, and the ISO-3166 two-letter country code IO and the .io domain name may be cancelled.

Currently, many users and businesses view .io as a generic top-level domain (gTLD) rather than a specific country. As of 2023, there are approximately 1.2 million .io domains registered, a large portion of which are related to cryptocurrencies.