RARBG
BitTorrent metasearch engine
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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]
Azerbaijani
Bengali
Bulgarian
Catalan
German
Persian
Indonesian
Hebrew
| |
 RARBG Homepage as of July 2019 | |
Type of site | Torrent index, magnet links provider |
|---|---|
| Available in | English Azerbaijani Bengali Bulgarian Catalan German Persian Indonesian Hebrew |
| Dissolved | May 31, 2023 |
| Headquarters | |
| Area served | Worldwide |
| URL | Deprecated link at archive.today (archived 2022-04-24) |
| Registration | Closed |
| Launched | 2008 |
| Current status | Offline |
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 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]
Blocking and censorship
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]
| Country | Date of block |
|---|---|
| Saudi Arabia | 2 April 2014[11][12] |
| United Kingdom | 27 November 2014[13] |
| Denmark | 27 March 2015[14] |
| Turkey | 12 August 2015[15] |
| Portugal | 26 October 2015[16] |
| Italy | 6 March 2017[17][18] |
| Australia | 18 August 2017[19][20] |
| Indonesia | 10 October 2017[citation needed] |
| Finland | 8 June 2018[21] |
| Ireland | 18 January 2018[22][23] |
| Belgium | 3 January 2019[citation needed] |
| India | 12 April 2019[24][25][26] |
| Greece | 15 May 2019[27] |
| Netherlands | 31 March 2022[28] |
| Iran | Unknown |
| Bulgaria | Unknown |
| Oman | Unknown |
| China | Unknown |