GitHub reportedly removed more than 900 repositories and forks connected to anime-streaming tools after a Remove Your Media LLC notice representing Crunchyroll, VIZ Media, and other rightsholders. The projects were linked to the wider HiAnime/Aniwatch ecosystem, including tools that other applications could use to access or republish streams.
The action came during the same March 2026 period in which HiAnime reportedly went offline after drawing more than 150 million monthly visits. The timing suggests mutually reinforcing disruption, but available reporting does not establish which event happened first or prove that they were one coordinated operation.
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What happened
GitHub removed more than 900 repositories and forks connected to anime-streaming tools after receiving a copyright-enforcement notice from Remove Your Media LLC, according to TorrentFreak’s March 24, 2026 report. The notice reportedly represented rightsholders including Crunchyroll and VIZ Media.
The affected projects were not one consumer-facing streaming website. They were software repositories associated with the wider ecosystem around HiAnime—formerly connected with the Aniwatch name—and included projects identified in reporting as “aniwatch,” “aniwatch API,” and “MegacloudKeys.” Some third-party applications and websites reportedly used similar tools or APIs as an intermediary layer for accessing or republishing streams.
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GitHub’s action disrupted that software layer, but it did not prove that anime piracy had ended, did not permanently eliminate every downstream service, and did not amount to a court ruling that every removed repository was unlawful. The most accurate description is a large repository-network takedown involving copyright claims, after GitHub reportedly found the notice’s specific anti-circumvention theory insufficiently supported.
How HiAnime fits into the story
HiAnime reportedly went offline earlier in March 2026 after attracting more than 150 million monthly visits. Its disappearance weakened a network of unofficial applications and APIs that depended on the site’s streams, catalog information, or technical structure.
The timing matters, but the available reporting does not establish whether HiAnime went offline before or after Remove Your Media submitted the GitHub notice. It is therefore too strong to describe the events as a proven, single coordinated operation. They occurred during the same period and had mutually reinforcing effects: the loss of the consumer-facing site made dependent tools less useful, while the GitHub removals made it harder for developers and operators to maintain or reproduce parts of that infrastructure.
| Reported event | What can be said confidently | What remains uncertain |
|---|---|---|
| HiAnime went offline | The site reportedly disappeared earlier in March 2026 after very high traffic. | The available reporting does not establish the precise cause or its order relative to the GitHub notice. |
| GitHub repository removals | More than 900 repositories and forks tied to anime-streaming tools were reportedly removed after a notice from Remove Your Media. | The public account does not establish that every affected project had the same users, operators, or level of involvement. |
| Rightsholder representation | Crunchyroll and VIZ Media were reportedly among the rightsholders represented in the notice. | That does not show that Crunchyroll personally wrote every allegation or directly ordered each individual removal. |
Why GitHub removed the repositories
The notice reportedly advanced more than a straightforward claim that repositories contained or distributed copyrighted material. It also argued that the projects facilitated circumvention of technological protections used by authorized streaming services, including subscription paywalls, digital-rights-management systems, and other access controls.
GitHub reportedly distinguished between that anti-circumvention theory and the notice’s other copyright claims. Its response, as described by TorrentFreak, said there was not enough information to support the specific DMCA anti-circumvention allegation, while determining that the notice contained other valid copyright claims.
That distinction is central:
- It does not mean GitHub declared the projects lawful. A finding that one legal theory is inadequately supported is not a ruling that no infringement occurred.
- It does not mean the notice was rejected in full. GitHub reportedly acted on other copyright claims in the notice.
- It does not mean a court decided the case. A GitHub repository removal is an online-platform enforcement action, not a final judicial finding.
GitHub’s published DMCA materials also caution that publication or receipt of a notice does not establish that the allegations are correct or that an identified user did anything wrong. The notice and the platform’s response should therefore be treated as evidence of an enforcement dispute, not as a complete legal judgment about every repository or developer involved.
Why the total exceeded 900
The reported figure included both repositories and forks. That wording matters. It does not mean that 900 independent piracy websites, companies, or operators were individually shut down.
A popular public repository can have hundreds of forks—copies created under other accounts or organizations. GitHub’s documentation explains that a large, actively forked repository network may be handled together when a notice identifies the network and provides a representative basis for treating the forks as infringing to the same extent as the parent project.
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This repository-network process helps explain how one enforcement action can affect hundreds of copies at once. It also explains why a takedown can have an impact beyond the original developer’s account: forks may be used by other applications, modified privately, or incorporated into separate projects.
At the same time, the count should not be inflated. “More than 900 repositories and forks” is the supported description. Calling the event a shutdown of 900 piracy sites would misstate both what GitHub removed and what the reporting established.
What was in the affected software ecosystem?
HiAnime was the visible destination for viewers. Around it sat less visible infrastructure: APIs, scrapers, stream extractors, access keys, forks, and application code that could help other services connect to, catalog, or republish streams. The reported GitHub targets belonged to this supporting layer rather than representing one unified commercial service.
That distinction explains the significance of the action. Removing a consumer-facing domain may inconvenience viewers who know that domain. Removing commonly reused code can affect multiple applications and sites at once. If several services depend on the same repository, API behavior, or stream-access method, a repository-network takedown can create a wider short-term disruption.
It also explains why the disruption may not last indefinitely. Piracy ecosystems commonly respond to enforcement by creating replacements, changing names, moving code to other hosts, or rebuilding functionality from scratch. The removal of the identified repositories therefore demonstrates pressure on a particular infrastructure layer—not the permanent elimination of unauthorized anime distribution.
This article does not provide links or instructions for finding replacement mirrors, unofficial APIs, scraping tools, stream extractors, or circumvention keys. Those details would help reproduce the activity at issue rather than explain the enforcement event.
What Crunchyroll’s involvement does—and does not—mean
The defensible statement is that Crunchyroll was named as one of the rightsholders represented in the notice reported by TorrentFreak. Remove Your Media LLC reportedly submitted the notice on behalf of multiple rightsholders, including Crunchyroll and VIZ Media.
That is different from saying that Crunchyroll personally authored every technical allegation, directly removed each repository, or independently controlled GitHub’s decision. GitHub evaluated the notice under its own platform and DMCA procedures. The available reporting does not establish the division of work among Remove Your Media and the represented rightsholders.
Crunchyroll separately maintains a copyright-notification policy that describes the information required for DMCA complaints and the procedures available for counter-notifications. That policy shows that Crunchyroll has a formal copyright-enforcement framework. It should not, however, be treated as proof that the specific GitHub notice used identical wording or followed exactly the same process.
Does this mean anime piracy is over?
No. The action appears significant because it targeted reusable software and repository forks rather than only one web domain. But it does not establish that all unauthorized anime streaming ended or that every application relying on the removed projects disappeared permanently.
There are several reasons for that limitation:
- Repository removal is not the same as universal network removal. Code may exist in private copies, other hosting services, local machines, or independently rebuilt projects.
- Not every downstream service necessarily depended on every removed repository. The public count does not identify the role of each fork or prove that all were operational.
- Replacement services can appear. Rebrands and new domains are a recurring response to enforcement, even when a particular infrastructure provider is disrupted.
- The legal dispute was narrower than the headline may suggest. GitHub reportedly found the anti-circumvention theory insufficiently supported but accepted other copyright claims. That result does not resolve every possible legal question about similar software.
The practical effect is best understood as disruption and increased maintenance pressure. Developers or operators who depended on the removed projects may have faced broken integrations, missing code, or the need to find lawful alternatives. Whether that pressure produces a lasting reduction in access depends on what happens outside GitHub as well.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What viewers looking for legal access should know
For viewers seeking a replacement, check the current catalogs of licensed anime services and official physical-media retailers. Availability changes by country, title, language track, release window, and membership tier.
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For titles that have left a streaming catalog, licensed Blu-ray releases and other official retailers may provide a more stable ownership option where those releases are sold. Physical media is not a direct substitute for every streaming feature, and availability can also be regional, but it avoids depending on an unofficial mirror or an access-bypass tool.
The broader lesson from the takedown
This event shows why online copyright enforcement increasingly focuses on infrastructure as well as destinations. A streaming site is what viewers see, but the software around it can determine how easily content is indexed, extracted, delivered through another application, or reproduced under a new domain.
Targeting that layer can produce a larger immediate effect than removing one website. It can also create a more complicated legal and technical dispute, because repositories may contain mixed-purpose code, forks may differ from their parents, and a notice may rely on several legal theories at once.
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Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problemsFix Now →Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitchesFind Drivers →Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errorsFree Scan →In this case, the reported outcome contains both facts that are easy to simplify and qualifications that should not be lost: more than 900 repositories and forks were affected; Crunchyroll was named among the represented rightsholders; HiAnime disappeared during the same March 2026 period; and GitHub reportedly found the specific anti-circumvention allegation insufficient while acting on other copyright claims. Those facts describe a major disruption, not a final ruling on every project or the end of anime piracy.
Frequently Asked Questions
What did GitHub remove?
GitHub reportedly removed more than 900 repositories and forks linked to anime-streaming tools after receiving a notice from Remove Your Media LLC, which represented Crunchyroll, VIZ Media, and other rightsholders. The projects were associated with the wider HiAnime/Aniwatch ecosystem.
Did GitHub decide that the anime tools were legal?
No. GitHub reportedly found the notice’s specific DMCA anti-circumvention theory insufficiently supported but determined that other copyright claims in the notice were valid. That is not the same as declaring the repositories lawful.
Did Crunchyroll personally order the GitHub removals?
Crunchyroll was reportedly named as one of the rightsholders represented in the notice. The available reporting does not show that Crunchyroll personally wrote every technical allegation, directly removed every repository, or controlled GitHub’s decision.
Does the takedown mean anime piracy is over?
Not necessarily. The action disrupted a software and infrastructure layer, but replacement code, new domains, private copies, and independently rebuilt services can emerge. The event demonstrates disruption rather than the permanent end of unauthorized anime streaming.
The Bottom Line
Bottom line: GitHub reportedly removed more than 900 anime-streaming repositories and forks after a Remove Your Media notice representing Crunchyroll, VIZ Media, and other rightsholders. The action hit software linked to the HiAnime/Aniwatch ecosystem, but it was not a court ruling, did not prove that every removed project was unlawful, and did not guarantee that anime piracy would disappear.
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