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RARBG
BitTorrent metasearch engine From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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RARBG was a website that provided torrent files and magnet links to facilitate peer-to-peer file sharing using the BitTorrent protocol. From 2014 to 2023, RARBG repeatedly appeared in TorrentFreak's yearly list of most visited torrent websites.[1] It was ranked 4th as of January 2023.[2] The website did not allow users to upload their own torrents.[1]
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History
RARBG was founded in 2008.[3] Originally conceived as a Bulgarian BitTorrent tracker (BG in the name stands for "Bulgaria"), the website had been serving an international audience since then. According to TorrentFreak, RARBG specialized in English-language "high quality video releases", but lists other content as well, including "games, software and music."[1]
The website has been described in 2019 as a "notorious market" by the US trade representative.[4] In 2020, the website was listed as a target of Bulgarian law enforcement.[5]
Shutdown
On 31 May 2023, the site announced its shutdown, citing multiple reasons, including inflation, side effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russian invasion of Ukraine preventing it from covering the costs to keep the site running.[6]
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Blocking and censorship
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Perspective
RARBG was blocked in several countries around the world for legal reasons, generally due to its facilitation of copyright infringement.[1] In December 2008, the site remained closed for one week due to legal pressure from BREIN.[7] In 2017, RARBG was filtered out of Google search results following a controversy wherein links to torrent sites were highlighted in Google's "carousel" search results.[8][9] Due to a lawsuit brought against ISP Hurricane Electric by film studios demanding the personal information of pirates, Sophidea VPN, a VPN service operated through Hurricane Electric, blocked access to several torrent sites as of December 2020, including RARBG.[10]
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References
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