"United States internet company Cloudflare has threatened to pull its services in Italy, including for the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics, after being fined 14 million euros ($16m) for failing to tackle online piracy. Italy's independent communications watchdog, Agcom, announced the fine on Thursday for ongoing violation of the anti-piracy law, notably failing to disable content flagged under its Piracy Shield system."
"In a lengthy post on X late Friday, Cloudflare chief executive Matthew Prince condemned what he said was a scheme to censor the internet. He said the system had no judicial oversight, no appeal process and no transparency, and required services to block content not just in Italy, but globally. Cloudflare had already launched legal challenges against the scheme and would now fight the fine, which he called unjust."
"He also said his company was considering discontinuing the millions of dollars in pro bono cyber-security services we are providing the upcoming Milano-Cortina Olympics. Prince said he would be discussing the issue with US officials in Washington, DC, next week and would then head to Lausanne for talks with the International Olympic Committee (IOC), which is organising the February 6-22 Winter Games in northern Italy."
Cloudflare threatened to pull its services in Italy, including for the Milano-Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics, after being fined 14 million euros for failing to tackle online piracy. Italy's communications watchdog Agcom said the fine stemmed from ongoing violations of the anti-piracy law, including failure to disable content flagged under the Piracy Shield system. The Piracy Shield allows rightsholders to report livestreamed pirated content through an automated platform and requires providers to block flagged content within 30 minutes. CEO Matthew Prince condemned the system as lacking judicial oversight, appeal processes and transparency, and said Cloudflare would fight the fine and consider withdrawing services and investments.
Read at www.aljazeera.com
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