He added, “We cannot comment on what the ISO 3166 Maintenance Agency may or may not do in response to this development. It is worth noting that the ISO 3166-1 standard is not just used for domain names, but many other applications. The need to modify or retain the IO encoding may be informed by needs associated with those other purposes, such as for Customs, passports, and banking applications.”
Edwards’ advice to any organization that might be impacted is this: “There’s no need for anyone with an .io domain to panic. The IANA may decide to fudge their own rules and keep the domain going, perhaps assigned to Mauritius instead, or by turning it into a generic, non-country domain. Even if they decide to deprecate it, this will be managed over multiple years.”
However, he added, “If an organization has made .io part of their identity, though, then it may be time to at least think about a brand review.”