Notice anything…different while surfing the net lately? A porn company recently purchased the expired domain of a popular video hosting site, meaning that links embedded in tons of regular articles now direct you to said porn company. You’re welcome?
On Thursday morning, Twitter user @dox_gay pointed out that hardcore porn was embedded in a number of mainstream news sites such as The Washington Post, HuffPost and New York Magazine.
No, this was not some elaborate prank. As @dox_gay explained, these links originally directed to VidMe, a short-lived YouTube competitor that shuttered in 2017. Four years after closing its virtual doors, the defunct site let its domain name expire, and 5 Star Porn HD swooped in and bought it.
So now, any vid.me embeds now redirect to the 5 Star Porn HD landing page as does vid.me itself.
@dox_gay replied to their tweet with a number of the hilariously NSFW examples but, alas, many of the outlets have since caught on and removed the links. Don’t believe us? Refer to the screenshots in the thread.
One example involved former House Majority leader John Boehner. The original New York Magazine article focused on the “creepy” kisses he blew at a reporter during a press conference in 2015 but, with the 5 Star Porn HD update, included images of Boehner alongside, um, other boehners.
