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The CEO of networking company Cloudflare is attack Italy in response to anti-piracy regulatory fines, and Cloudflare is threatening to pull out of the country and its 2026 Winter Olympics.
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Italy announced on January 8 that it had imposed a fine of 14.2 million euros. (around $16.5 million) against Cloudflare for failing to block access to the pirated content. Shortly after, Matthew Prince, CEO of Cloudflare taken at to demand the fines, describing Cloudflare’s decision not to comply as a fight against censorship. Prince said complying with Italy’s requirements as part of its piracy protection policy would affect content globally.
Italy’s Piracy Shield is a program implemented by AGCOM, the country’s telecommunications regulator. To reduce piracy in the country, such as hosting illegal streams of sporting events, the program allows intellectual property owners to report content violations to an automated, rapid response system. However, some have complained that the 30-minute time limit given is not enough to allow ISPs to properly investigate complaints and also results in the blocking of legitimate, non-pirated content.
“In other words, Italy insists that a shadowy European media cabal should be able to dictate what is and is not allowed online,” Prince said.
A quasi-judicial body in Italy was fined yesterday @Cloudflare 17 million dollars for not having followed their plan to censor the Internet. This project, which even the EU described as worrying, required us, within 30 minutes of notification, to completely censor everything on the Internet… pic.twitter.com/qZf9UKEAY5
– Matthieu Prince 🌥 (@eastdakota) January 9, 2026
In his messages, Prince specifically mentioned the 30-minute delay required by Italy for Cloudflare to disable access to traffic suspected of hacking.
“We block pirate streams every time we find one,” he wrote. “We hate them“But,” he added, “we can’t have a system in place where a dark cabal can force us to GLOBALLY remove everything they don’t like on the Internet within 30 minutes. It’s crazy.”
Some of the supporters of Italy’s anti-piracy rules are soccer teams who want to prevent their matches from being broadcast illegally.
Prince then listed steps his company could take, including withdrawing its cybersecurity service from the 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Olympics, removing Cloudflare servers from Italian cities and postponing any investment plans in the country. Prince also suggested he would involve the leadership of the U.S. government, appointing Vice President J.D. Vance to his position. Prince also reposted a message addressed to the Italian Prime Minister, along with a article on Italy’s actions.
A representative for Cloudflare responded to a request for comment but did not provide any statements or comments from the company.
The Winter Olympics, scheduled to take place between February 6 and 22 at venues in Lombardy and northeastern Italy, are a sensitive topic when it comes to cybersecurity, given the potential for many people. use VPN technology to view broadcasts of the event.
