Netizens spotted an illegal link to Zendaya's "Challengers" movie on the website of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) in the Philippines.

On Monday, X user @vinylattes tweeted a screenshot of the Philippine government agency's link to Zendaya's new movie released last Friday. The user captioned the post, "Why does DPWH have a 'Challengers' link?" in Filipino, adding several crying emojis.

The tweet has since gained over 196,100 views, 5,000 hearts and 678 retweets. It has also attracted different reactions from Filipino social media users.

RELATED: 'Challengers' Reviews: Zendaya Performance Praised, 'Oscar Campaign Starts Immediately'

"I think the government is hosting a pirated site, and they forgot that the domain name of DPWH is pointing to the same server with that pirated site. They forgot to configure the proxy settings properly. LMAO," speculated one X user.

"This is where our taxes go," opined someone else.

RELATED: Zendaya Wishes She 'Went To School,' Reflects On Being Family 'Breadwinner' As A Child

"I had to look it up, and it's real," tweeted a different netizen.

"They wanted to see the film so bad just like ME!" quipped another person.

 

Another screenshot showing the Google search results with the keywords "challengers movie dpwh" was also posted on a satire page on Facebook.

Likewise, the post earned different kinds of engagement, such as laughing reactions, shares and comments.

"Department of Pinoy Watchers Homevideo," some netizens stated, giving the DPWH acronym a different meaning.

"DPWH, my favorite streaming site," joked someone else.

Shortly after, the same X user tweeted an update showing an alleged screenshot of a "statement from DPWH Information Service."

"We understand the seriousness of this situation and would like to inform the public that the malicious files from a third-party entity have been removed and that the attack was contained on April 29, 2024. Thank you for your understanding on this issue," the message read.

As of press time, the illegal movie link on the DPWH website can no longer be found. However, the deleted webpage has been archived on Wayback Machine.

"Challengers" stars Zendaya as a pro tennis player named Tashi who gets forced to become a coach after an injury. As a coach, she will transform her mediocre tennis player husband (Mike Faist) into a world-famous tennis champ.

The film hit the cinemas in the U.S. last Friday.

Tags: Zendaya Challengers piracy philippines