Users of torrent site Pirate Bay are reporting that popular internet browsers Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox and Safari are blocking the site. A malware warning seems to be appearing when users try to access the site similar to the one that appeared for Kickass Torrents last month as well as in October 2015.

While Google Chrome seems to be giving a deceptive warning for the site due to the new Google Safe Browsing policy, Firefox users are being told: "This web page at thepiratebay.se has been reported as a web forgery and has been blocked based on your security preferences." Some Safari users are also reporting the same phenomenon.

Generally, a warning like this would appear when an ad network is compromised and malicious ads start popping up. A diagnostic report (at the the time of reporting) on the problem reads: "Thepiratebay.se contains deceptive content. Don't panic. Users sometimes post bad content on websites that are normally safe. Safe Browsing will update the safety status once the web-master has cleaned up the bad content."

Google started the Safe Browsing service a couple of months ago restricting multiple ad sites to protect users from visiting malicious websites that contain malware. Generally, malvertising attempts use dubious JavaScript redirection tricks to scam users into clicking on pop-up links or ads that seem harmless but may lead to malicious sites.

Torrent sites are a major ground for malware injectors and it may be possible that the number of malicious ads may have been too high leading to such a problem. The Pirate Bay has yet not clarified its stand on the subject or given any reason for the problem.

Update: An update seems to have been made by Pirate Bay to fix the issues as now it seems the site has been cleared safe by Google. The Google transparency page however, shows that there were some safety issues as we have already reported.