You can thank Meta for that. They sued the registrar managing several ccTLDs, including .ml
, .ga
, .gq
, .cf
, and .tk
. Meta even goes so far to fabricate a conspiracy theory about the registrar being part of a cybercriminal ring; they feign concern and wreak havoc.
.io
is a ccTLD though and is subject to the whims of the British Indian Ocean Territory. They can, for any reason, remove domains. See what recently happened with Mali and.ml
.