123movies, GoMovies, or GoStream was a web of networks intended to stream movies and TV-Series for free and was banned by Vietnamese Authorities for illegal possession and share of copyrighted media. But as of August 2021, it still lives through several cloned sites.
123Movies doesn’t have any data in its servers and access data from third-party sources and encourages you to leave a comment to refine their algorithm to filter the best searches for other users. Before 2018, You could even contact 123Movies for any issues while surfing.
History of 123Movies:
Uprising:
After its first appearance in 2015 with the domain name “123movies.to”, 123Movies grew immensely throughout the years and even made a name for itself as the most popular illegal site by the Motion Pictures Association of America in 2018, just before being taken down by the authorities.
In October 2016, 123movies first appeared in the list of MPAA under Online Notorious Markets Overviews and was had an envious global Alexa rank of 559. 123Movies had more than 96 million worldwide visitors by this time.
In 2017, the minds behind 123Movies launched another website called “animehub. to”, which, as the name suggests, was dedicated solely to anime.
Downturn and Shutdown:
TorrentFreak was one of the most prominent news sources to cover the whole process of the shutdown of 123Movies. In March 2017, TorrentFreak reported that the US government was in talks with Vietnamese authorities about shutting down illegal streaming and downloading of movies that surfaced from Vietnam, especially 123Movies.
Despite being in Vietnam, 123Movies took incomparable measures to mask their true origin. Technically, the site was hosted from Ukrain, but there were reasons to believe that the creators were in Vietnam.
On 19th March 2018, the site’s homepage announced the shutdown and urged the users to respect filmmakers.
- How to Access 123Movies in 2021:
Before you fasten your belts and start downloading VPNs and using proxies, it’s safe to assume that most of the cloned sites are not trustworthy and can possess a significant threat to personal security with the potential to be booked on criminal codes for illegally downloading copyrighted material.
That being said, 123Movies are not illegal everywhere, and accessing it through several measures are possible, such as:
Step 1. Use VPNs, such as Surfshark along with good Antivirus and antimalware software like Kaspersky. Do not click on suspicious links while surfing.
Step 2. Antivirus software ensures that you access the proper 123Movies mirror through google search and do not stumble upon a Phishing website.
Step 3. As Google doesn’t allow showing 123Movies in its searches, a website with available mirrors is shown. Be careful when accessing 123Movies from mirrors.
Some countries have blocked the 123Movies altogether, and it might not be possible to access the mirrors altogether without being monitored.
Disclaimer: We are just an information source and do not condone the illegal use of sites to download copyrighted materials. You are advised to look up the rules in your country about using 123Movies before proceeding.
