Jody Serrano
Editor in chiefEditor in Chief at Xataka On. Before joining Webedia, I was a tech reporter at Gizmodo and The Messenger. While I've covered all sorts of things related to technology, I'm specialized in writing about social media, Internet culture, Twitch, and streamers.
Fed up with piracy sites streaming its live games for free, Spanish soccer league LaLiga decided to bring down the hammer earlier this month. It would squash those pirated streams no matter what—even if that meant blocking access to possibly thousands of other legal websites.
Access problems. Users in Spain started reporting that they were experiencing problems when trying to access certain websites on Feb. 2. Notably, only users of two ISPs—Movistar and O2—experienced problems, and only during broadcasts of LaLiga’s live soccer games. The circumstances led to some to believe that the problem had be related to soccer privacy sites, though official confirmation didn't come until more than a week later.
On Feb. 10, Cloudflare confirmed to Xataka, our sister site, that LaLiga had asked ISPs to block access to IP addresses used by known piracy sites.
Collateral damage. While LaLiga successfully managed to block access to the piracy sites for some users, other legal websites were caught in the crossfire. This is because Cloudflare uses shared IP addresses to manage its network, which means that thousands of websites use the same IP address. As such, when LaLiga requested that ISPs block access to the IP addresses used by the piracy sites, they also blocked access to other websites.
One user on X shared that his son’s school switched to Cloudflare after experiencing a DDoS attack. It was included in the block requested by the LaLiga.
“They have a digital classroom and don’t use physical books. They haven’t been able to connect to access their books for three weekends in a row,” the user said. “Yesterday we found out that the problem was #movistar vs #cloudflare. He has to use a phone from [French telecom provider] Orange to study.”
Ángel Gaitan, a Spanish YouTuber whose content focuses on cars and repairs, also complained about the situation.
“Who is going to compensate me for everything that I haven’t sold today to people who use Movistar [because they couldn’t access my website]?” he said.
Cloudflare speaks up. In Cloudflare’s view, the problems were all LaLiga’s fault. In a statement, the U.S. company slammed the Spanish soccer league for actions that it claimed put commercial interests above individual users.
“Although LaLiga clearly understood that blocking shared IP addresses would impact the rights of millions of consumers to access hundreds of thousands of non-infringing websites, LaLiga nonetheless moved forward with such blocking,” the company told Xataka. “This appears to reflect a mistaken belief that their commercial interests should trump the rights of millions of consumers to access the open Internet.”
As for the illegal content, Cloudflare pointed out that it can’t remove content from the Internet that it doesn’t host.
LaLiga responds. As expected, LaLiga tells a different story. In a statement, it accuses Cloudflare of “knowingly protecting criminal organisations for profit.”
“Through this conduct, Cloudflare is actively enabling illegal activities such as human trafficking, prostitution, pornography, counterfeiting, fraud, and scams, among other things,” LaLiga said. “Legal businesses affected by these blocks are those that Cloudflare has deliberately used as a digital shield to obscure illegal activity, without their knowledge and while profiting from it.”
The soccer league pointed out that it did not request a broad or indiscriminate block and has proof that the IPs targeted are being used to distribute its content illegally. It also adds that it’s sent Cloudflare multiple formal requests to stop collaborating with the pirating sites but that the company has refused to cooperate.
Legality. To be clear, LaLiga acted within its legal rights. It won a case in the Spanish legal system in 2022 that allows it to ban access to domains that feature its pirated content on a weekly basis. The league has been obsessed with eliminating illegal content for years. Last year, LaLiga won the right to ask Internet providers for the IP address, name, address, and ID of users who watch pirated content.
The bottom line. The incident between LaLiga and Cloudflare sets a dangerous precedent. The fact that it could happen in the EU, which guarantees net neutrality and bans ISPs from blocking Internet traffic, is more worrisome.
What’s more important: a company’s commercial interests or regular users? We’ll have to wait to find out.
Images | Maxim Hopman | Lesly Juarez
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