RARBG Homepage as of July 2019 | |
Type of site | Torrent index, magnet links provider |
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Available in | English |
Area served | Worldwide (except for blocked countries) |
URL | rarbg |
Registration | Closed |
Launched | 2008 |
Current status | Online |
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RARBG is a website that provides torrent files and magnet links to facilitate peer-to-peer file sharing using the BitTorrent protocol. From 2014 onward, RARBG has repeatedly appeared in TorrentFreak's yearly list of most visited torrent websites.[1] It was ranked 5th as of June 2021.[2] The website does not allow users to upload their own torrents.[1]
RARBG was founded in 2008. Originally conceived as a Bulgarian BitTorrent tracker (BG stands for "Bulgaria" in the name), the website has been serving an international audience since then. According to TorrentFreak, RARBG specializes 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.[3] In 2020, the website was listed as a target of Bulgarian law enforcement.[4]
RARBG is 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.[5] 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.[6][7] Due to a lawsuit brought forth against ISP Hurricane Electric by film studios demanding the personal information of pirates, Sophidea VPN, a VPN operated through Hurricane Electric, blocked access to several torrent sites as of December 2020, including RARBG.[8]
Country | Date of block |
---|---|
Saudi Arabia | 2 April 2014[9][10] |
United Kingdom | 27 November 2014[11] |
Denmark | 27 March 2015[12] |
Turkey | 12 August 2015[13] |
Portugal | 26 October 2015[14] |
Italy | 6 March 2017[15][16] |
Australia | 18 August 2017[17][18] |
Indonesia | 10 October 2017[citation needed] |
Finland | 8 June 2018[19] |
Ireland | 18 January 2018[20][21] |
Belgium | 3 January 2019[citation needed] |
India | 12 April 2019[22][23][24] |
Greece | 15 May 2019[25] |
Netherlands | 31 March 2022[26] |
Iran | Unknown |
Bulgaria | Unknown |
Oman | Unknown |
China | Unknown |