(Juba) – The popular piracy based film portal FZMovies.net has gone offline as of June 2025, leaving its millions of users, including a sizable audience in South Sudansearching for answers.
The website which had become an unregulated hub for free streaming and downloading of global films, TV series, and Bollywood hits, now appears to be unreachable without any official explanation.
Over the years, FZMovies.net built a massive following, especially in regions like East Africa, where legal streaming platforms remain expensive or limited. South Sudanese viewers relied heavily on such portals to access entertainment from Hollywood to Nollywood. The sudden disappearance of the site has sparked widespread speculation, ranging from legal intervention to a cyberattack.
Though long removed from Google’s search listings due to copyright infringement concerns, the site remained popular through direct access and word of mouth. Its watermark—fzmovies.net—became a familiar sight on pirated content shared via flash drives, smartphones, and community screenings across the country. Users often ignored or tolerated the persistent pop-up ads that helped fund its operations.
No official reason has been provided for the blackout. It is unclear whether the shutdown stems from enforcement by copyright holders, a Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) attack, or possibly the death or disappearance of the site’s anonymous administrator. The site had no known official spokesperson or registered public entity, complicating efforts to understand its status.
The financial model behind FZMovies.net relied primarily on aggressive advertising through pop networks, rather than charging users. This allowed it to flourish in lower-income regions, including South Sudan, where high data costs and subscription fees for legitimate platforms such as Netflix (currently costing around 26,000 South Sudanese Pounds per month—approximately $5.00) remain a barrier for many households.
In the vacuum left by the site’s disappearance, numerous copycat platforms have emerged. These sites mimic the layout and offerings of FZMovies.net and now appear in online search results, often confusing users into thinking the original has returned. Most of these clones, however, offer lower quality and questionable safety, prompting concerns about malware and scams.
In South Sudan’s urban centres such as Juba, internet cafes and local sellers of mobile entertainment content have noted a marked increase in queries from customers trying to locate the missing site.
“We’ve had dozens of people every day asking about FZMovies,” said one cafe operator. “For many, this was their only source of new films.”
Whether it was a quiet takedown, technical failure, or something more personal, such as the health or arrest of its operator, remains unknown. For now, the internet has one less controversial digital haven.