Hanoi police shut down site hosting 50,000 pirated films

Phan Thanh Cong and Nguyen Tuan Anh are under investigation by Hanoi police for copyright infringement, authorities announced Saturday.

Cong is suspected of orchestrating the operation and managing the Fmovies website, a large-scale platform that streamed pirated films, including many produced by the Motion Picture Association. Anh allegedly assisted Cong by copying and uploading content.

According to police, Fmovies attracted over 6.7 billion visits in the first half of 2024, with nearly 50,000 films showing signs of copyright violations.

Between 2016 and August 2024, Cong and Anh reportedly profited in the hundreds of thousands of U.S. dollars from these illegal activities.