Hacker takes down major French piracy site

Servers powering YggTorrent, one of the biggest French-language media piracy sites, were “emptied” then “destroyed” overnight Tuesday to Wednesday by a hacker claiming to oppose new paid functions on the platform. YggTorrent’s site, which tallied 6.6 million users according to the attacker calling themselves “Gr0lum”, showed only a message reading “permanently closed” on Wednesday. Signed by the site’s operators, the statement said it would be “technically possible” to rebuild, but rejected doing so in the face of “permanent hostility”.

Launched in 2017, YggTorrent offered a directory of “torrent” files that allow users to download data over a peer-to-peer network — frequently used to share illicit copies of films, TV series and music. The site began offering a 14.99-euro ($17.40) monthly subscription in December for a “turbo mode” while adding hurdles to downloads for free users. Hacker “Gr0lum” accused the team of “profiting from a monopoly” and “taking people hostage” on a website created specially to announce the hack.