My point is, she doesn’t want to be @taylorswift@taylorswift.com

That’s so much extra offputting text. She just wants to be @taylorswift

That’s short, it’s concise, it’s easy to remember. It’s branding.

Just try to imagine a newscastor telling some story, and saying at the end:

“For all the latest from taylor swift, you can follow on the fediverse @taylorswift”

Now imagine that, compared to this:

“For all the latest from taylor swift, you can follow on the fediverse @taylorswift@taylorswift.com”

You can make it so the official handle in operation behind the scenes is @taylorswift@taylorswift.com

That’s not the issue. The issue is, she would want to control her own name. Meaning I couldn’t make @taylorswift@otherdomain.ext

Yes, it’s easy to spot that being fake TO YOU. You have to remember that 60% of America is literally illiterate. Domains are NOT hard to register, but they are hard to register every single variation of a false domain.

Now I can be @taylorswift@faylorswift.com

And how many people might fall for that? And sure, you don’t eliminate the problem by making handles exclusive, but it makes it harder to fake, and easier to go after those attempting identity theft.