Seven Arrested in Vietnam for Running HiAnime, the World's Largest Anime Piracy Site

Four months after HiAnime suddenly went dark, the people behind the world’s largest anime piracy site are in police custody.

Vietnam’s Ministry of Public Security arrested seven individuals connected to HiAnime and its associated piracy services, the Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment confirmed in a LinkedIn post on July 2. The arrests were carried out by the Economic Crime Investigation Department (C03) and the Cybersecurity and High-Tech Crime Prevention Department (A05), with intelligence support from the US Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Justice.

The seven suspects are accused of illegally copying and distributing copyrighted anime content online, violating intellectual property rights including copyright and related rights, according to ACE, the anti-piracy coalition founded by the Motion Picture Association.

HiAnime went offline in March this year. For nearly three months, there was speculation the site might return — the operators themselves had hinted at the possibility. But in late June, HiAnime officially announced it would not be coming back.

The arrests cap a coordinated international enforcement operation spanning multiple countries and agencies. ACE thanked Vietnamese authorities and specifically acknowledged the US Homeland Security Investigations and the Department of Justice for years of support during the investigation. The coalition said it will continue working with Vietnamese authorities to dismantle similar piracy platforms.

HiAnime’s takedown is the latest in a wave of enforcement actions against anime and manga piracy sites. Just weeks ago, joint operations between South Korean and Vietnamese authorities shut down three of the world’s largest illegal manga platforms: Harimanga, Manhwaclan, and Kunmanga. Those sites had been on Korean webtoon platform Naver’s watchlist since 2023.

The global anime industry is growing fast. Streaming platforms are paying top dollar for content libraries, and Hollywood studios — burned by declining superhero box office returns — are increasingly turning to anime IP for live-action adaptations. Big libraries attract pirates, and the same commercial value that fuels illegal streaming is now driving one of the most aggressive international copyright enforcement campaigns the industry has ever seen.