diff --git a/website-1.x/core/Showcase.js b/website-1.x/core/Showcase.js
index 4db077f8a8d3..d14fe22577f1 100644
--- a/website-1.x/core/Showcase.js
+++ b/website-1.x/core/Showcase.js
@@ -7,15 +7,6 @@
 
 const React = require('react');
 const PropTypes = require('prop-types');
-const users = require('../data/users');
-
-users.forEach((user) => {
-  if (!user.image.startsWith('/img/users')) {
-    throw new Error(
-      `User image should be self-hosted in /img/users folder. This was not the case for ${user.image}`,
-    );
-  }
-});
 
 const UserLink = ({infoLink, image, caption}) => (
   <a className="link" href={infoLink} key={infoLink}>
diff --git a/website-1.x/data/users.js b/website-1.x/data/users.js
index 89706f2c4448..cd8df0543306 100644
--- a/website-1.x/data/users.js
+++ b/website-1.x/data/users.js
@@ -5,7 +5,7 @@
  * LICENSE file in the root directory of this source tree.
  */
 
-module.exports = [
+const users = [
   // Please add your logo in alphabetical order of caption.
   {
     caption: '1Hive',
@@ -892,3 +892,13 @@ module.exports = [
 
   // Please add your logo in alphabetical order of caption.
 ];
+
+users.forEach((user) => {
+  if (!user.image || !user.image.startsWith('/img/users/')) {
+    throw new Error(
+      `Bad user site image = ${user.image}. The image should be hosted on Docusaurus site, in /static/img/users/ folder, and not use remote http or https urls`,
+    );
+  }
+});
+
+module.exports = users;
diff --git a/website/src/data/users.js b/website/src/data/users.js
index c1a046ddec0d..f3ad470e1d53 100644
--- a/website/src/data/users.js
+++ b/website/src/data/users.js
@@ -269,4 +269,16 @@ const users = [
   },
 ];
 
+users.forEach((user) => {
+  if (
+    !user.preview ||
+    (user.preview instanceof String &&
+      (user.preview.startsWith('http') || user.preview.startsWith('//')))
+  ) {
+    throw new Error(
+      `Bad user site image preview = ${user.preview}. The image should be hosted on Docusaurus site, and not use remote http or https urls`,
+    );
+  }
+});
+
 export default users;