Led by companies including Amazon, Disney, Google, Meta and Spotify, a new initiative by the Trustworthy Accountability Group will produce a domain blocklist to deny ad revenue to pirate sites. The idea isn't new but here, intelligence on known pirate sites will be combined with data originally obtained by anti-malware vendors, meaning that potential advertisers will have another reason to avoid pirate sites when they expose users to malicious ads.
There was a time when visiting a pirate site was much like visiting any other. Keen to attract eyeballs wherever they might be, many of the world’s biggest brands exchanged cold hard cash for an appearance on prominent pirate portals.
Over time and as the thorny issue of funding illicit platforms gained traction, companies including Ford, Toyota, Nissan, Mazda and Volvo came under increasing pressure. The same held true for other household names, such as tech giant Samsung, along with Nokia, Canon, Carlsberg, even Coca Cola.