14 DAY TRIAL // Because of malicious third-party ads, Google has flagged torrent site Demonoid as likely to harm users’ computers.
According to TorrentFreak, several hours ago, Google put Demonoid on the list of sites that were not safe for users. As a result, Demonoid has disabled all adverts on the site until further notice.
As the publication mentions, the entertainment industry has been raising awareness among companies of the sites where their ads are being displayed. Associating a big name company with a pirating site may not be in the best interest of their brands, after all. The purpose of this was, in fact, to make sure that sites such as Demonoid had financing issues.
Of course, it wasn’t long before torrent sites were deemed as malware havens, which is obviously an exaggeration.
Demonoid had a lot of problems in the past and had been shut down for nearly two years before relaunching this past March. Ever since then, the site has been trying to get back to its former fame and glory, but today’s action is a hit.
If you search for Demonoid now, you’ll still get the site at the top of the results list, but clicking on the redirection link to go to the torrent tracker will display a warning.
“Visiting this web site may harm your computer,” reads Google’s announcement. The search engine then suggests that you return to the previous page and pick another result or to simply try out another search to find what you’re looking for.
The company does provide the full link to Demonoid if you do want to go through to the site, but you have to copy and paste the link to do this. Google has also placed a few other links on the page, including one to explain to users how Safe Browsing diagnostic works.
Similar warnings are displayed even when you try to access the direct link on Chrome and Firefox if you have Google safe browsing activated, or if you checked the “Block reported attack sites” in Firefox’s security tab.
“We run content from a lot of ad networks in our ad banners, and a lot of banners from each. One of those banners started serving malware, so we disabled all ads until we are 100% sure of the culprit and get it removed. We are also taking the proper steps to get us out of all the blacklists. Thanks for your understanding and sorry for the hassle,” reads an announcement posted on Demonoid’s website.