Yes, that is how the ccTLD is enforced by IANA.. And it is in fact an automatic process. There is a policy for requesting a single 5 year extension, but that extension request must be accompanied by a retirement plan, otherwise by policy the ccTLD has a 5 year grace period before being removed.
They will not retire a domain under heavy use such as .io.
Heavy use has not stopped them from attempting to retire other ccTLDs, it just delays the process.
Yes, that is how the ccTLD is enforced by IANA.. And it is in fact an automatic process. There is a policy for requesting a single 5 year extension, but that extension request must be accompanied by a retirement plan, otherwise by policy the ccTLD has a 5 year grace period before being removed.
Heavy use has not stopped them from attempting to retire other ccTLDs, it just delays the process.