The Soviet Union collapsed in 1991. The .su domain is going to collapse in 2030. That's a whole 39 years later. So what's going on with .io domains?

Originally, many suspected the .io TLD wouldn't be retired despite ICANN's own policy saying it should be. After all, if .su domains are still in use, why would .io ever go away?

But it looks like ICANN is finally getting around to retiring .su domains. This sets a precedent that looks unfavorable for .io domains.

Funnily enough, ICANN also noted that .su domains could be saved by a policy change. Perhaps that's what we need.

The wild west days of the internet are long gone. Domains have massive institutions using them. It's crazy how in 2025, geopolitics in some far off land can impact billion dollar companies on the web.

As I said last year:

In a utopian world where our goal as humanity is to reduce the amount of link rot on the web, retiring TLDs make no sense.

But in the meantime, it's unsure what's going to happen to .io domains in the future. Maybe ICANN will make an exception for this TLD because of how widely used it is.

Let's hope so. I don't like the idea of losing a domain because of something entirely outside your control, especially when domains can't really be replaced.