Taylor Swift buys porn domain names to beat internet trolls

Taylor Swift has snatched up the domain names TaylorSwift.porn and TaylorSwift.adult, in an effort to ward off Internet porn trolls.

The move is in anticipation of the changes to web URLs, which will take place as of 1 June, where almost any word can become a domain name.

City names will also be opened up to help web users find their desired destination online with greater ease.

The changes follow the 2011 decision by the non-profit Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers to expand the number of generic top-level domains, such as .com and .net.

When the decision was made, there were 22 at that time and now there are over 547 new generic top-level domains on the Web, with new suffixes released every month.

Swift took advantage of the so-called "Sunrise period" where people and trademarked brands can get first dibs on the new domains. However, after 1 June, they are available to the public.

This is not the first time that Taylor Swift has moved to protect her brand identity. It was reported earlier this year that she had applied to trademark use of the phrase "this sick beat" as well as a number of other lyrics from her album 1989.

If successful it would mean Swift would own the rights to lyrics from the 2014 album, with the phrases Party Like It's 1989, Cause We Never Go Out Of Style, Could Show You Incredible Things, and Nice To Meet You, Where You Been? registered with the US government.