French Pirate Streaming Site HDS.to Shuts Down Permanently

• HDS.to is a popular torrent website that commanded a large user base in French-speaking countries.
• The website disappeared suddenly, and all social media accounts were also taken down.
• It is unknown why the website’s operators chose to shut down the website.

Operators of HDS.to have taken down the website without notice, and the popular torrent website will not be making a comeback ever. HDS.to slowly became one of the most visited websites in French-speaking countries and served as a gateway to hundreds of movies and TV shows. Out of nowhere, users were met with a message stating the website is set to shut down, and it was completely removed soon after.

The official notification read “Warning! We do not have any accounts on social networks (Twitter, Facebook…). Announcements made by so-called official accounts are misleading. Be careful also of sites that offer you to subscribe to a VPN to access the site; their goal is simply to earn money through an affiliate program when you subscribe to a VPN. Please understand that the site is permanently closed, there is no (VPN, account…) way to access it.”

Image Courtesy of HDS.to

HDS.to operated on a subscription basis and allowed unlimited access to content for 3.99 euros per month. Users who paid the subscription fees have not been contacted to far if their payments will be refunded for all months they’ve paid in advance for. The subscription system was not very secure and allowed users to bypass the payment by switching IP addresses and getting free access for a limited time.

It is unknown why the website shut down and there are no reports of legal proceedings against the website by media companies. Many fake websites copying the website’s identity are already up, and we recommend not visiting them as they may contain abusive advertising or be ridden with malware. Until there is official word on the website’s reappearance, it is recommended to switch to other file-sharing websites. While the website is unknown to the English-speaking community, it was quite popular in Europe and Canada and the shutdown will definitely leave many unhappy.

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