Cloudflare CEO Matthew Prince is very upset with Italy. The reason is $17 million fine imposed on the company for defying Piracy Shield, a censorship tool lacking due process. Earlier this week, Italy’s communications regulator, AGCOM, slapped the San Francisco-based internet infrastructure giant with a €14 million ($17 million) fine for refusing to comply with the country’s Piracy Shield system. The penalty, the first major enforcement under a 2023 Italian law. Piracy Shield reportedly mandates that domain-name system providers like Cloudflare block access to websites accused of hosting pirated content within 30 minutes of notification from rights holders — without court orders, appeals, or transparency. In a series of posts on X, formerly Twitter, Cloudflare CEO lashed out at Italy. “No judicial oversight. No due process. No appeal. No transparency,” he wrote, highlighting risks to even Cloudflare’s own 1.1.1.1 public DNS resolver.He further complained that the fine imposed is calculated as up to 2% of Cloudflare’s global revenue despite the company’s mere $8 million in Italian sales in 2024. Italy’s move comes amid rising European pressures on American technology companies that the Donald Trump government has been protesting over. Pointing to the same, Cloudflare CEO thanked US VP JD Vance and Tesla CEO Elon Musk.
Cloudflare CEO’s complete X post slamming Italy
Yesterday a quasi-judicial body in Italy fined @Cloudflare $17 million for failing to go along with their scheme to censor the Internet. The scheme, which even the EU has called concerning, required us within a mere 30 minutes of notification to fully censor from the Internet any sites a shadowy cabal of European media elites deemed against their interests. No judicial oversight. No due process. No appeal. No transparency. It required us to not just remove customers, but also censor our 1.1.1.1 DNS resolver meaning it risked blacking out any site on the Internet. And it required us not just to censor the content in Italy but globally. In other words, Italy insists a shadowy, European media cabal should be able to dictate what is and is not allowed online.That, of course, is DISGUSTING and even before yesterday’s fine we had multiple legal challenges pending against the underlying scheme. We, of course, will now fight the unjust fine. Not just because it’s wrong for us but because it is wrong for democratic values.In addition, we are considering the following actions: 1) discontinuing the millions of dollars in pro bono cyber security services we are providing the upcoming Milano-Cortina Olympics; 2) discontinuing Cloudflare’s Free cyber security services for any Italy-based users; 3) removing all servers from Italian cities; and 4) terminating all plans to build an Italian Cloudflare office or make any investments in the country.Play stupid games, win stupid prizes. While there are things I would handle differently than the current U.S. administration, I appreciate @JDVance taking a leadership role in recognizing this type of regulation is a fundamental unfair trade issue that also threatens democratic values. And in this case @ElonMusk is right: #FreeSpeech is critical and under attack from an out-of-touch cabal of very disturbed European policy makers.I will be in DC first thing next week to discuss this with U.S. administration officials and I’ll be meeting with the IOC in Lausanne shortly after to outline the risk to the Olympic Games if @Cloudflare withdraws our cyber security protection.In the meantime, we remain happy to discuss this with Italian government officials who, so far, have been unwilling to engage beyond issuing fines. We believe Italy, like all countries, has a right to regulate the content on networks inside its borders. But they must do so following the Rule of Law and principles of Due Process. And Italy certainly has no right to regulate what is and is not allowed on the Internet in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, China, Brazil, India or anywhere outside its borders.THIS IS AN IMPORTANT FIGHT AND WE WILL WIN!!!
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