Adult content creators, primarily those on platforms like OnlyFans, are unintentionally contributing to the removal of compromised government and university websites from search engine results. This phenomenon arises from the creators' efforts to combat the widespread piracy of their content.
These creators frequently utilize copyright laws, such as the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), to issue takedown requests for pages that host their stolen images and videos. This process involves notifying search engines like Google to remove links to infringing material from search results.
However, a recent analysis by cybersecurity firm UpGuard has revealed that over the past 15 years, more than 2,000 domains belonging to governments and educational institutions across 80 countries have been subjected to copyright takedown requests linked to adult content. This suggests that these official websites have been compromised.
Scammers have been exploiting the authoritative nature of .gov and .edu domains, which often rank highly in search results. They upload malicious pages and PDFs to these compromised sites, using enticing titles related to free downloads or leaked content, often mentioning popular adult creators.
The primary goal of these scams is to redirect unsuspecting users to fraudulent websites that advertise online dating services or other suspicious content, thereby generating revenue through advertising schemes.
Greg Pollock, director of research at UpGuard, explained that while creators are not intentionally aiding government websites, their copyright enforcement actions have this unintended consequence. By requesting the removal of search results, they effectively make these compromised government and educational pages invisible, even if the underlying compromise remains.
Since 2011, UpGuard's analysis indicates that adult content creators have sent approximately 384,286 takedown requests, covering over 631,000 URLs, targeting government and education websites. The majority of these requests have been made in recent years.
Google has reportedly removed around 130,000 of these URLs in response to the takedown notices. The research highlights a significant increase in such hijackings since 2020, coinciding with the boom in the adult creator economy.
