Members of 4Chan and eBaum's World were apparently behind a mass campaign of uploading pornographic content to the world's most popular online video website, Youtube.
The videos were uploaded as part of the "celebrations" on the 20th of May 2009 of Porn day and almost all the videos that have been screened out do not carry any indications that they are for adults only. It is believed that as many as several thousands of videos have been uploaded.
The rogue uploaders generally append genuine content like an interview or a music video before the adult content gets played. Attackers have been using popular tags like "Hannah Montana" to attract Youtube users to view the videos.
To add further confusion, many users actually flagged the fake videos as their favourites and rated them highly. The BBC caught up with Flonty, one of the many uploaders who took part in the scheme, and said that he did it because Youtube Keeps deleting music.
A spokesperson for Google told Cnet that "This group of pranksters thought it would be funny to load a bunch of porn to YouTube," he said. "This is an unfortunate, and I think poorly directed, prank. I think our systems are doing really well at removing content that violates the guidelines."
Google has been actively removing the videos but according to some reports, it is still quite easy to find unflagged adult content on Youtube.
This bit of bad news came as Youtube enjoyed a spat of great news including an extension of its current content partnership with BBC, a potential tie-up with Hulu and the fact that it will be offering full version of UK TV shows soon.
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Our Comments
It must be made clear that nothing that 4Chan and eBaum members have been doing is illegal per se. One could argue that the use of copyrighted adult content is ground for legal action but uploading that content to Youtube is not illegal in itself. Google would certainly be facing a monumental bill and PR disaster if it went ahead and sued each and every account holder involved in that operation.
Related Links
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http://www.daniweb.com/blogs/entry4365.html
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http://www.webuser.co.uk/news/news.php?id=283094
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http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/news/index.cfm?newsid=116256
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http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/05/22/youtube_smut_flood/
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http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8061979.stm
YouTube Cleaning Up After ‘Porn Day’
http://www.von.com/news/youtube-cleaning-up-after-day.html
How Did You Celebrate Porn Day?
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2347497,00.asp
Porn Prank Pesters YouTube
http://technologizer.com/2009/05/20/porn-prank-pesters-youtube/
