The owners of `queer.af` thought that AF only meant “as f*ck”, without realizing that AF also happens to the be the ISO 3166 code for a country controlled by the Taliban, who didn’t like their domain name [1].
Brits that had `.eu` domains lost their domains due to Brexit [2] (unless they had some other EEA ties).
And if the Chagos deal goes ahead [3] and the British Indian Ocean Territory ceases to exist, then all `.io` domains might disappear too (although considering that `.su`/Soviet Union domains are still a thing, they probably would have stayed around).
Assuming the British/American air base remains on some agreement with the Mauritian government, then the Chagos Islands may remain as a special territory of Mauritius, justifying the continual existence of an ISO 3166 code for it.
Actually, Diego Garcia (the British/American military base) already has it's own ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 code, DG: [1]
It's "Exceptionally reserved" "at the request of International Telecommunication Union (ITU)".
Although my gut feeling is that if the deal happens, Mauritius would probably ask to exceptionally reserve `IO` as well. Still, I'm not sure if I'd risk using a `.io` domain since it's not guaranteed.
Ouch, that must've hurt. Brexit is the most stupid thing that Britain has ever imposed on itself.