Prank leaves YouTube facing porn cleanup

LONDON, May 23 (UPI) -- A spokesman for the video-sharing Web site YouTube, based in California, says a prank has left the site with scores of pornographic videos.

The unidentified spokesman said hackers placed thousands of pornographic videos on the Web site by misleadingly tagging the adult videos with the names of popular musical acts, The Daily Telegraph (Britain) said Friday.

Among the musical acts whose names were used in the online prank were Disney performers Hannah Montana and the Jonas Brothers.

"YouTube is a community site used by millions of people in very positive ways. Sadly as with any form of communication, there is a tiny minority of people who try to break the rules," the site's spokesman said, adding the offending videos were being removed.

Responsibility for the mass upload of the pornographic videos was claimed by members of the 4Chan message board. The Telegraph said 4Chan is a popular online discussion forum.

The prank may be the result of the Web site's policy to not allow any copyright music videos to remain on YouTube, the British newspaper added.