Chrome and Firefox Block Pirate Bay Over 'Harmful Programs' (torrentfreak.com)

An anonymous reader shares a TorrentFreak report: Chrome and Firefox are actively blocking direct access to the The Pirate Bay's download pages. According to Google's Safe Browsing diagnostics service TPB contains "harmful programs," most likely triggered by malicious advertisements running on the site. Comodo DNS also showed a "hacking" warning but this disappeared after a few hours.

Comments

what we need here is a mentality reset

[Anonymous Coward]

It is true there are advertisements that have malicious effects, if you load them and/or run their javascript (which is idiotic to go running). It is also true that malicious native OS executables can be found on sites like TPB. Even moreover, it's almost certainly true that I could work around whatever "block" they have put in place.

However, let's hold the bus just a sec. Harmful things exist, but I do NOT want Google / Mozilla / the US Govt / China / the EU / my homeowner's association / insurance company / whoever making my choices for me about what I should see, run, what sites I can visit, and what information is harvested for who to sell to who.

What we need here is a reset back to the 1980's. I had a computer on my desk - well, probably under, at the time. It did whatever the fuck I told it to. It answered to me. It could access the (then pre-web internet), and there was nobody trying to tell me what was "acceptable". Not that it was bug free, but it generally was written to accept my commands. The FT-fucking-P program was not written to check back with the homeship whether the site was "safe". More and more we see big companies and bigger governments all wanting to tell me what I should be doing, reading, saying, and running. For my own protection. For the children. For the RIAA.

Control freaks: do please fuck off. Yes, I know, using Chrome and Firefox is optional. I know the internet is not safe, particularly if you are uneducated. But this big brother shit is becoming neigh well unavoidable unless you want to live in a fucking cave.

Re:what we need here is a mentality reset

[ewanm89]

Google's safe browsing list have been in both Firefox and chrome since chrome's first release, and both Firefox and chrome have a toggle to turn it off in the options should you wish. For some reason Google has added pirate bay download pages to the list, according to database lookup it matches the sort of block they usually impose when the site has been compromised either directly or via maleware embedded in advertising.

Re:It just gives you a warning

[ravenshrike]

Hey, expecting the average pebkac to click a button saying they acknowledge the high probability that the website in question will infest their computer is entirely too difficult. As for TPB, it has been worse than normal recently, enough that I immediately run MWB and S&D after visiting.

Not too far from the truth, honestly.

[SvnLyrBrto]

I'm not sure about torrent freaks, but TPB and KAT would spawn no end of pop ups and new tabs suggesting you click on their links for free "security scans" and "disk repair tools" of dubious provenance. And Adblock seemed powerless to stop it. No way would I ever take them up on their "generous offers", but I'd bet that many a less savvy or careful user got themselves pwned that way.

Malware in torrents

[gatfirls]

I haven't been on TPB in a long time but I recall there being tons of malware/viruses in application/game downloads. I don't think there is some ulterior motive here.