KickassTorrents moves to old domain name after blocking .so domain

The Somali top-level domain name .so used by torrent site KickassTorrents has been blocked. The torrent site has therefore moved to its old .to domain name. The exact reason for the blockage is not yet known.

KickassTorrents is one of the largest torrent sites in terms of traffic and the site managed to attract even more visitors after The Pirate Bay went offline in December. The website has long been able to use the .so-tld, an extension assigned to Somalia. However, the registry that manages the .so domain names has decided to confiscate kickass.so. The fake torrent site kickasstorrents.so has also been blocked.

The responsible registry has not yet given an official reason for the seizure of the domain names, TorrentFreak reports. However, there is a good chance that the registry is acting on requests from the entertainment industry or has been pressured by the government. KickassTorrents has since moved to the .to domain, a domain name that the torrent site has used before.

The seizure of domain names by registries is anything but new. The administrators of The Pirate Bay have moved to other domain names several times after they were blocked. However, these measures are rarely effective: users can quickly find the new websites via search engines.