Hardcore porn appeared on major news sites after a defunct video-hosting domain was redirected to X-rated content.
The issue hit sites which embedded posts from Vidme. The network which shut down in 2017, but lived on in the embed codes of many external sites. The phenomenon was first reported by Vice News .
On Friday morning, Insider found explicit content from 5 Star HD Porn on sites including The Guardian, Refinery29, The Boston Globe, the UK's Daily Telegraph, and the Russian state-controlled Sputnik News.
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Some Insider pages were also affected, though by time of publication the content had been removed. Insider is not linking to the pages since they currently contain pornography.
The Guardian's embed appeared in a 2014 liveblog about a new video from Azealia Banks, which the paper described as "a little bit NSFW."
The Telegraph's embed, from a 2016 article about Facebook videos, has produced the unfortunate combination of a Catholic baptism and the explicit images.
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A Boston Globe article pulling together videos from riots in Baltimore in 2015 included explicit content too.
Refinery29 had porn on a 2016 article on the release of Ariana Grande and Lil Wayne's "Let Me Love You."
An Insider 2017 article which embedded leaked pre-release videos of the Nintendo Switch console instead briefly displayed porn. The embeds were removed on Friday morning.
Sputnik News wrote Friday about how the issue affected US sites without mentioning that it had affected at least one of its own pages.
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Vidme stopped operating in 2017, as detailed in this Medium post:
In the post, founder Warren Schaeffer said that the site had been acquired by Giphy.
It now appears to be in the hands of 5 Star HD Porn, which is redirecting Vidme links to its home page. The page includes explicit thumbnail images advertising dozens of videos, and pornographic video ads which auto-play.
The issue also affected The Washington Post, HuffPost and New York Magazine, as Vice first reported. Those sites appeared to have fixed the issue by Friday morning.
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People soon noticed the flood of NSFW images and commented on social media.
Tech news site The Register also spotted the issue in a Fox Sports article about Dwyane Wade. A 2015 New York Magazine "Intelligencer" column about former House Speaker John Boehner also took the unexpectedly graphic turn, Vice reported.
5 Star HD Porn could not be reached for comment. Insider contacted all media outlets mentioned for comment but had not heard back by the time of publication.
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