I don't think it does directly, but I suppose in a macro sense, by paying for a .io domain you're contributing to the system responsible for the exploitation of these people.
An analogy: a bunch of indigenous people are kicked off their island, and coffee is grown there by the people who evicted them. You buy the coffee, and the people who have the rightful claim to the land don't receive any of the profits.
To add insult to injury, the coffee is named after the island it's grown on, and that's mostly why it's popular - because it's a really good name for coffee (maybe it's called Java Island).
The .io/.sh/.ac TLDs were effectively invented and run by a British guy; he states some of the resulting profits were shared back with the UK government, which controls those territories, to benefit the inhabitants of such territories; the UK government denies this ever happened. The reality is likely that those people were effectively stripped of their rightful "internet property", in a way not dissimilar from old colonial exploitation.
To be honest, if .io is not handed back to the Chagossian, it would be better to shut it down and turn the page on a pretty shameful page of internet history.
How does using these TLDs exploit "3rd world people"?
I don't think it does directly, but I suppose in a macro sense, by paying for a .io domain you're contributing to the system responsible for the exploitation of these people.
An analogy: a bunch of indigenous people are kicked off their island, and coffee is grown there by the people who evicted them. You buy the coffee, and the people who have the rightful claim to the land don't receive any of the profits.
To add insult to injury, the coffee is named after the island it's grown on, and that's mostly why it's popular - because it's a really good name for coffee (maybe it's called Java Island).
That's basically what the .io domain is.
The .io/.sh/.ac TLDs were effectively invented and run by a British guy; he states some of the resulting profits were shared back with the UK government, which controls those territories, to benefit the inhabitants of such territories; the UK government denies this ever happened. The reality is likely that those people were effectively stripped of their rightful "internet property", in a way not dissimilar from old colonial exploitation.
To be honest, if .io is not handed back to the Chagossian, it would be better to shut it down and turn the page on a pretty shameful page of internet history.