News websites accidentally host hardcore porn, thanks to old Vidme links

The internet is generally a sordid latrine of unsolicited penis and debauchery, but it has outdone itself yet again.

On Thursday, several respectable websites discovered that some videos embedded in old articles had turned against them, displaying hardcore pornography where innocuous clips once stood. Affected publications included The Washington Post, New York Magazine, and yes, Mashable too.

First spotted by Twitter user @dox_gay and reported by Motherboard, the R-rated mishap originated with defunct video hosting website Vidme. Launched in 2014, Vidme marketed itself as a cross between YouTube and Reddit, but it failed to take off to a competitive scale. The website was eventually shuttered in 2017 and subsequently acquired by Giphy, where it faded into a ghost of the internet past.

Yet this week the spectre of Vidme returned to haunt us, and just like in a horror movie, it came back wrong. It seems as though Vidme’s domain lapsed since we heard from it last, and it was scooped up by pornography website 5 Star HD Porn. However it happened, the fact is that any embedded Vidme clips now redirect to 5 Star HD Porn which, as the name suggests, offers up porn — presumably of the five-star, high definition variety.

All articles that use Vidme embeds are now punctuated with graphic images of naked people getting it on, which is a rather unexpected sight in old articles about London pigeons, for example. A whole slew of publications were impacted, with everyone from Huffpost to Uproxx to The Verge temporarily hosting hardcore porn.

Fortunately many affected websites have been quick to clean up and delete the clips, though 5 Star HD Porn is still happily humping away on others. It may take some time to weed out all the years-old Vidme embeds, especially considering how much websites’ back-ends can change in four years.

It’s a good thing so many of us are still working from home amidst the pandemic. With all this surprise porn popping up, it’d be easy for anyone who glimpses our screens to get the wrong idea.