Piracy: "Serious concerns about Italy's Piracy Shield" for the CCIA (Google, Cloudflare, Apple...)

"Like many other operators in the digital sector - whether based in Italy, in other EU Member States, or outside of Europe, - we have been expressing serious concerns about Italy's Piracy Shield, which AGCOM has chosen as a tool for issuing orders to block internet sites (i.e. within the very short time frame of 30 minutes)," said the Computer & Communications Industry Association (CCIA), a US organisation based in Washington D.C., that also has an office in Brussels (BEL), on 03/04/2025.

The Piracy Shield platform was launched in Italy by AGCOM on 01/02/2024. It enables sites that illegally broadcast content, including live sports broadcasts, to be blocked within 30 minutes of being reported. "30,000 pirate sites were blocked in 10 months of the Piracy Shield platform's activity. Law enforcement operations recently led to 11 arrests with over 2,500 illegal sports content distribution channels seized with a monthly turnover of €250m," announced Lega Serie A on 21/02/2025.

"These requests are made by rightsholders without due process or possibility for recourse. Hence, we believe that…