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[Start of transcript]
Screenshot of a tumblr post
nyancrimew posts:
remember .io games? that was 8 years ago
therealkepler replies:
nowadays the only people that use the .io domain are technology sites
nyancrimew replies:
ok so .io is a “fun” lesson in colonialism and technology, like all two letter top level domains (yes all of them) it’s a country domain belonging to a country, io being the british indian oceans territory, an archipelago in the indian ocean. .io domains became so trendy because they’re easily marketable to tech people (io can stand for input/output), it looks kinda cool and at the time domains with .io were highly available with not many websites being created on the islands.
however .io is not like other small islands with highly wanted tlds such as .ai or .to, where the islands make millions off of domain sales and can rely on them as a big pillar of their economy. all profits from .io sales go to the UK, and despite a fight to get control over their tld the islands get nothing, not only did the native population get displaced in land deals and colonialism but their colonizer also heavily profits off of the territories sudden (indirect) trendyness with tech startups.
don’t buy .io domains, don’t support the british empire.
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Same for .nu, the TLD for Niue, which is used by businesses in the Netherlands, Denmark and Sweden, where “nu” means “now”. It’s been taken over by a Swedish company, and they, backed by the Swedish government, refuse to give it back or share the profits, saying it’s “essential for Swedish internet infrastructure”. Colonialism at it’s finest.
And just for context: Niue has about 1500-2000 inhabitants, and it is estimated that they missed out on about $150 million in revenue since 2013. That’s $100000 per capita, and a revenue stream that’s more than their entire GDP.
I looked up the Wikipedia page.
The only inhabitants are British and United States military personnel, and associated contractors
Oh, ok. That’s not too bad actually.
The forced removal of Chagossians from the Chagos Archipelago occurred between 1968 and 1973.
Oh.
Today, the Chagossians are still trying to return, but the UK government has repeatedly denied them the right of return despite calls from numerous human rights organisations to let them.
Ooohhh…
On 3 November 2022, it was announced that the UK and Mauritius had decided to begin negotiations on sovereignty over the British Indian Ocean Territory, taking into account the international legal proceedings.
Ok, getting better…
However, in December 2023, it was reported that the UK government was planning to discontinue the talks.
Oh, it’s worse, actually.
i can’t believe the country whose biggest exhibit is of all the artifacts it’s stolen from other cultures would be so inconsiderate to other cultures.
…and changed for the absolute worst in recent years.
This is such a braindead reddit/tumble take. You can be anti-colonialism and even make not of the artifacts that ARE stolen without trying to imply everyone in British museums is stolen because of : haha internet meme
they’re not stolen because internet meme, they’re stolen because many of those artifacts are literally taken by colonists who have taken the land.
Hence why I mention some of the artifacts are indeed stolen.
Then why did you call that take braindead? They didn’t say that all of Britain’s exhibits are for stolen artifacts, just how their biggest exhibits are the stolen ones.
I would argue the wording of
whose biggest exhibit is of all the artifacts it’s stolen from other cultures
Implies that at least a large amount of the artifacts are stolen.
No it doesn’t. It’s just saying that: of the artifacts they have stolen, all of them are on display. It implies nothing about the number of artifacts.
It’s ok to be wrong sometimes. What is important is that you don’t double down in the face of evidence that contradicts you.
I appreciate that you prefaced your comment by letting us know it was a braindead tumblr take. I otherwise would have been confused since it’s centered around a point the original comment never made.
Your English is bad or you type poorly. I assume you meant that the comment implied every artifact was stolen, which it never did. The stolen artifacts are stolen, and make up most of the largest exhibit.
Always interesting to see the remnants of the old empires. Countries like the UK and France still having little splatters of control across the world like the last bits of black mould you can’t reach.
I’m curious, are places like Hawai’i seeing similar movements? I know that area has a bit of an odd history.
Don’t a lot of these smaller territories actually want to be part of Britain though?
While it may not be perfect, if you’re a very small territory then having Britain as security is probably a good thing at this point.
As much as people like to rag on Britain, it’s really not that bad in the modern day.
Several do, yes, but this isn’t one of them. The BIOT is a particularly grim case and a stain on our country to this day
