Naver WEBTOON, MCST, Interpol Take Down 3 English Piracy Sites
The takedown shows Naver WEBTOON's anti-piracy team tracking rebranded sites and coordinating with international authorities to shut down major English-language piracy operations.
Reporting from 1 source: Anime News Network.
Naver WEBTOON announced on August 13 that three English-language webtoon and manga piracy sites were taken down with South Korea's Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, INTERPOL, and North African law enforcement. The operators were arrested. The sites illegally scanned and translated over 300 webtoons and drew over 130 million annual visits.
Naver WEBTOON said the three sites were run by the same group in North Africa and targeted readers in the United States, Europe, and other Western markets. The company's anti-piracy team had been monitoring the sites after several existing piracy domains were consolidated and rebranded, an apparent attempt to avoid enforcement.
The sites served as primary sources for unauthorized scans and translations that other piracy websites later redistributed. The operators are now facing legal proceedings in the local jurisdiction.
Synthesized by Yomimono from the 1 cited source below, including Japanese-language reporting where cited, then editorially reviewed before publishing.