On: Iran's blogfather: Facebook, Instagram and Twitter...

[scholia]

> The larger image previews displayed when clicking a specific image result are actually hotlinked from the original source

So the website pays the cost without getting the benefit of a visit?

[yohui → scholia]

Heads you're a copyright thief, tails you're a bandwidth thief...

The larger image preview is still moderately sized (it loads the original image but in a smaller frame), so most users probably click through to the original page (since most users aren't savvy enough to right-click and go to the image directly, or mouse over to the "view image" button).

[jacquesm → scholia]

Exactly. As if hotlinking makes it better.