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by MichaelGG 4541 days ago
Provinces can get ccTLDs - Taiwan has .tw.

Sponsoring and getting .cat is a pretty cool workaround, though.
2 comments
rahimnathwani 4541 days ago
Can provinces really get ccTLDs? I thought .tw existed because Taiwan has an ISO country code: http://www.iso.org/iso/country_names_and_code_elements

Having said that, I'm not sure why the UK (whose country code is GB) uses .uk

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rurounijones 4541 days ago
Because GB Is "Great Britain" (England, Scotland, Wales)[1] which does not include Northern Ireland.

UK is "United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland" which is all four.

It was a politically motivated move basically.

[1] Lets not get pedantic here.

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MichaelGG 4540 days ago
IANA considers .tw to be "Taiwan, Province of China", as does that ISO link. As I understand, China pretty much bullied everyone else into not recognizing Taiwan so the rest of the world (like the UN) agrees Taiwan isn't a country. That's why one reason Microsoft asks for your Region, not country.

There appear to be other ccTLDs like .IO and .AQ that aren't countries. (Probably more.)

And I'm just being pedantic.

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rahimnathwani 4540 days ago
Both IO and AQ are ISO country codes as well. I'm not sure why.
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micampe 4541 days ago
Hong Kong has a ccTLD (and an ISO country code, and a currency) but is not a country, while still mostly working like one.
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Nursie 4541 days ago
Whether Taiwan is a province or a country is a contentious issue, and will depend heavily on who you ask.
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MichaelGG 4540 days ago
Well as far as IANA concerned (which I suppose is the only relevant view for .tw), it's "Taiwan, Province of China"[1]:

https://www.iana.org/reports/2010/taiwan-report-07jun2010.ht...

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