123Movies – Free Online Movie Streaming Sites |123Movie |123 Movies

123Movies is an illegal streaming website operated out of Vietnam and let viewers watch Movies and TV Series for free. The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) called it the “most popular illegal site” in the world in March 2018. A few weeks later, the Vietnamese authorities closed it down as a result of a criminal investigation. As of April 2024, there are still active websites that mimic the brand.

Is 123Movies Safe and Legal?

A lot of people who wish to watch free movies online use 123Movies. But since malware and advertisements appear on 123Movies constantly, is it safe to use? Is there any virus in it? The concerns above are valid because its free material is not safeguarded. Fortunately, the answer to this query is provided in the following piece of content.

Even though 123Movie offers a large movie library for free and doesn’t require logins or subscriptions, many people are concerned about its security. This article attempts to address these concerns with 123Movies by offering solutions and advices. Now let’s get started.

Is 123Movies Safe?

123Movies’ content may not be safe enough to cause a risk to the computer, considering the unidentified source of the material. Additionally, you can be at risk from its expected malware and copyright violation. It’s challenging to provide a firm Yes or No response to this query, though, as 123Movies is more possibly unsafe than harmful.

So, we are prohibited from viewing free movies online with it? No, you aren’t supposed to do that. Our actions and our defensive plans will determine our level of safety in the end. We’ll talk more about some helpful strategies we can use to safeguard ourselves when using it later.

Is 123Movies Legal to Use for Streaming?

Because of the copyright laws in many countries, accessing and viewing pirated information is prohibited due to the protection of intellectual property. In actuality, each country has its own copyright laws, thus 123Movies’ legality depends on the country’s law.

Using 123Movies to watch movies may or may not be legal depending on where you live and how your country looks toward copyright violations and piracy. Watching pirated content on internet streaming services is acceptable in various countries. However, it is illegal to download, stream, or distribute pirated content in the majority of nations.

5 Best 123Movies Alternatives that Work in 2024

  1. Yesmovies
  2. Vumoo
  3. SolarMovies
  4. FlixTor
  5. StreamM4u

You can copy the names ant search it on google to get the website links

123Movies’ Development:

After being taken down from various domains, the website underwent multiple name changes; it was sometimes listed as “123Movies” and other times as “Movies123.” Prior to switching to gomovies.to and then gomovies.is, the original name and URL was 123movies.to. It then shifted to other domains, such as 123movies.is. After going through several names, including memovies.to, gostream.is, and 123movieshub.to/is, it was finally taken down.

The MPAA included 123Movies in its October 2016 Online Notorious Markets overview for the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR), noting that the website “had 9.26 million unique visitors worldwide in August 2016 according to SimilarWeb data,” with a global Alexa rank of 559 and a local rank of 386 in the U.S. According to a Business Insider investigation from October 2016, 123movies.to was the “most-used pirate website” in the UK.

Blu-ray, HD-RIP, HD, and camera qualities of movies were all featured in 123Movies. It used Streamango, MyCloud, and Openload as video hosts and players. TorrentFreak covered the site’s features, uptime/downtime, shutdown, and reasons for closure both during its operation and during its shutdown.

A second anime-focused streaming website, AnimeHub.to, was introduced by the 123Movies developers in December 2017 and stayed up for several months after 123Movies was shut down.

How 123Movies was Shutdonw?

TorrentFreak revealed in March 2017 that Ted Osius, the US ambassador to Vietnam, has discussed closing down illicit video streaming websites based in Vietnam with Truong Minh Tuan, the local minister of information and communications. The article singled out the website 123movies for this action.

While the website was technically hosted in Ukraine, the MPAA listed 123Movies (and GoStream.is) in its Online Notorious Markets overview to the Office of the United States Trade Representative in October 2017. The MPAA stated that despite the site’s efforts to conceal its operator’s identity, including the use of Cloudflare, there is strong evidence to suggest that the operator is still in Vietnam. The content of the website is uploaded using cyberlockers from multiple email accounts that originate from Can Tho University of Medicine and Pharmacy.

The website was called the “most popular illegal site in the world” by the MPAA in March 2018. It was believed to be run out of Vietnam and to have an estimated 98 million visitors per month.[3][6] The website was taken down on March 19, 2018, and users were asked to “respect filmmakers by paying for movies and TV-shows” in a note that appeared on the main page.

Reappearance of 123Movies:

The shutdown of 123movies, 123movieshub, gostream, and gomovies in response to a criminal investigation in Vietnam in 2018 was described as “an important development” in the MPAA’s October 2018 update on Online Notorious Markets to the US Trade Representative. This action was taken to combat illegal film piracy services. However the MPAA research also pointed out that at least eight other nations have seen the emergence of numerous copycat websites. TorrentFreak revealed in November 2018 that the FBI had shut down WatchAsap and other sites related to 123Movies, but they were redirecting users to other file-sharing websites. In 2018, clones multiplied in India despite the website being restricted there.