Google Chrome Starts Blocking Torrent Sites

Since yesterday, Google’s Chrome browser has begun blocking torrent websites, including Torrentz, ExtraTorent, RARBG, and the popular KickAss Torrents, flagging them as containing “harmful programs”.

When users attempt to visit the URL, a red banner bars access, warning that “The site ahead contains harmful programs,” and that “Attackers on [URL] might attempt to trick you into installing programs that harm your browsing experience (for example, by changing your homepage or showing extra ads on sites you visit).”

The owners of the websites have no idea why they have been flagged, other than the suspicion that the controversial sites have been deliberately censored, a number of which have spoken to TorrentFreak. RARBG’s operator told the site, “I hope Google comes to its senses and actually allows webmasters to see what the issue is in their webmasters tools.”

The team from ExtraTorrent were equally confused, saying, “There is no malicious software and you are still able to load ExtraTorrent in Mozilla Firefox, Opera, Chromium and other browsers. We’ll contact Google to resolve the issue shortly.”

Chrome users that wish to bypass the message when accessing torrent sites can disable the browser’s malware warnings.

Google has refused to comment, instead directing queries to a recent blog post.

Recent reports suggest that a similar restriction of access to torrent sites has started to occur with Mozilla’s Firefox browser, too.

Thank you TorrentFreak for providing us with this information.

Image courtesy of Wikimedia.