A Whole Bunch Of News Websites Have Accidentally Embedded Hardcore Porn Into Their Articles

If you had very serious news websites accidentally embedding hardcore porn videos into important articles on your 2021 bingo card, you’re in luck!

Earlier this morning, Motherboard uncovered that a number of major news sites have been the victim of a change in domain ownership that has resulted in the X-rated mishap.

With porn site 5 Star Porn HD buying the expired domain of the once-popular video hosting site Vidme, media companies like Huffington Post, New York Magazine, Rolling Stone, The Washington Post, BuzzFeed, Uproxx, Newsweek and even the Herald Sun, have had old video embeds redirect to hardcore porn clips.

First flagged by Twitter user @dox_gay, Doxie noticed that in one Huff Post article about Pharma Bro Martin Shkreli getting banned from Twitter, the original Vidme embed now redirects to clips titled ‘Why Don’t We Tag Team Your GF?’, ‘Naught Spy Girls Part 2’ and ‘Getting Into Porsha’s Ass’.

Similarly, in NY Mag’s ‘John Boehner Answers Questions With Creepy Kissy Face‘ piece and The Washington Post’s article about the dab making an “awkward comeback”, words about politicians were spliced with full-blown porn.

Twitter hasn’t noticed but a now-defunct video hosting/advertising platform (VidMe) let their domain expire so it was purchased by a porn website, now there is NSFW porn all over the regular internet where their links were embedded lol

For example: https://t.co/UdPRFnq4EP

— DOXIE ? (@dox_gay) July 22, 2021

vidme got purchased by a porno site and now websites that had embedded videos hosted by them (like washington post, fox news etc) show porn lol

— Rats!! ☻ (@DickHelicopter) July 22, 2021

Remember VidMe? The one-time competitor to YouTube?

The domain was recently allowed to expire after the company was shut in 2017, and has been bought by a porn site, resulting in countless old articles with embedded content that is now full blown hardcore porn.

For example. ? pic.twitter.com/6L353lEMnp

— Mark Deeks (@MarkDeeksNBA) July 22, 2021

But it wasn’t just limited to American publications — some Australian sites were affected by the 5 Star Porn HD takeover, too.

In one BuzzFeed Australia article titled ‘Someone Pulled Off The Most Australian Prank Phone Call Of All Time‘, video of the original prank was replaced with adult videos like ‘Eat Me’ and ‘Headmistress Scrubs Her Dirty…’.

A 2016 Herald Sun article regarding basketballer Thon Maker’s age was also derailed by a scrolling gallery of 5 Star Porn HD videos like ‘Emergency Squirter’, ‘Corrupting The Cute Caregiver’ and ‘Camping, Pranking And Fucking: Part 2’.

good morning! hardcore porn has been retroactively embedded in news websites all around the world, including the washington post, teen vogue and… australia's very own herald sun pic.twitter.com/vZtsbskE2y

— Zac Crellin (@zacrellin) July 22, 2021

and buzzfeed new’s former australian outpost @bradesposito pic.twitter.com/VAmKEsLCMG

— cameronwilson is typing… (@cameronwilson) July 22, 2021

Even though the whole thing is undoubtedly funny to see, this porn takeover highlights the issues that can occur when link rot happens.

While domains expiring and getting picked up by different people can be innocent fun — as we saw when Pauline Hanson’s website was redirected to the Refugee Council of Australia — it can sometimes be a little more insidious.

For example, hyperlinks breaking overtime might not seem too bad, but when domains aren’t managed properly after a company goes bust there are no restrictions in place that require the new host to keep things PG, which is the exact issue with 5 Star Porn HD.

And while it may be funny for adults who are scrolling through the Herald Sun to see giant cock and ‘Squirt Prank’ out of nowhere, it may take children by surprise when they’re innocently clicking around on sites like BuzzFeed.