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Given the recent threats from Cloudflare against Italy and siding with Vance, Musk and co., this is definitely not a far-fetched reality. Big Tech has demonstra

by elAhmo 9mo ago

Given the recent threats from Cloudflare against Italy and siding with Vance, Musk and co., this is definitely not a far-fetched reality. Big Tech has demonstrated which side they are going with.

aduwah 9mo ago
When did CF do this?
- cirelli94 9mo ago
  A week ago. https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/01/cloudflare-may-pull-servers-out-of-italy-over-order-that-it-block-pirate-sites/ https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/01/cloudflare-may-p...
  - countWSS 9mo ago
    How much of internet can Cloudflare turn off in italy? They picked a fight with the cloud gorilla.
    - jonasdegendt 9mo ago
      About 20% of sites, and there’s some big services behind Cloudflare so that percentage doesn’t even tell the full story.
    - immibis 9mo ago
      When Spain blocks CF (it does this regularly), it breaks all CF sites. Of course, the actual problem here is organised crime. Spain and Italy do this because the mafia owns them.
      - oarsinsync 9mo ago
        > When Spain blocks CF (it does this regularly), it breaks all CF sites. Of course, the actual problem here is organised crime. Spain and Italy do this because the mafia owns them. Mafia has a vested interest in broadcast rights of football matches in Spain? Spain blocks Cloudflare because the football league La Liga has a court order that allows them to point to IP ranges that are hosting/fronting live streams of football matches, and get ISPs to block access to those ranges.
        saghm 9mo ago
        If the sports league is influential enough to have a standing court order to be able to unilaterally block IP ranges for the entire country, I'd imagine that organized crime might take an interest. I have no idea if it's the case but when something already seems to have an outsized influence it wouldn't be crazy to imagine that others interested in that power would also take an interest. Moreover, I think the point of the parent comment is that they're blocking quite a bit more than just football games. It sounds like the claim is that the blocking is willfully broad because of other influences, not necessarily the the purported more narrow intent is necessarily from those influences.
        immibis 9mo ago
        Which directly contravenes the Digital Services Act. And is only in place because LaLiga has strong ties to the mafia.
        anthk 9mo ago
        More than mafia, ex-francoists oligarchs. And these could be stomped down tomorrow from CF by cancelling all the tangent services for those, even for Spanish banks and related industries (tourist and construction avoiding both attacks and serious disbalancing harms). The Ibex 35 would near collapse overnight and Tebas being kicked out from their own people.
      - anthk 9mo ago
        In case of Spain, not the Mafia but ex-Francoist idiots. And if you want to know, our (ex?)-Fascists even bribed European mafias. Literally.
- Findeton 9mo ago
  It is more about government tax warfare. They fined CF because it didn’t censor what the italian government wanted them to censor, so they fined CF.
freehorse 9mo ago
Not submitting to state censorship requests is not a great example of what is the problem with Big Tech as discussed here.
- elAhmo 9mo ago
  I wasn't referring to the state censorship request, but rather to the 'flocking' to self-proclaimed champions of free speech in the current Trump administrations as a cry for help.
  - freehorse 9mo ago
    I personally find that the fact that a private company compels a list of IPs and domains that they want blocked to get blocked more alarming than that.
mlrtime 9mo ago
Not really, you are framing this issue and dropping key words to make it political, are you a bot farming for engagement, please stop.
- salviati 9mo ago
  There were strong signals from the CF CEO that they align with the Trump administration. They threatened to pull the plug on all Italian customers. This is relevant to this conversation: CF recently acted in a way that makes some people think it might cut its services to people for political reasons. I don't find your comment particularly well articulated or continaing anything besides name calling (the "bot farming"). Can you articulate your opinion on the matter?
- ezst 9mo ago
  Not OP but, oh common. This entire thing IS political. Big Tech IS in bed with the authoritarian US apparatus, they have been very transparent about it. What are you expecting to gain from your message? Pedantry points?
  - elAhmo 9mo ago
    OP, not a bot. CF definitely chose to be political in the message, so regardless of what Italy did or who is right and wrong, posting that message is just a message that reliance on CF can just be a bad idea long-term.
    - ezst 9mo ago
      Just for context, did you see this from CF's CEO? https://x.com/eastdakota/status/2009654937303896492 https://x.com/eastdakota/status/2009654937303896492 The bits about Vance, Musk and "freedom of speech" are not only completely unnecessary, but well over the top.
      - deleted 9mo ago
        [deleted]
ActorNightly 9mo ago
Big Tech is going to optimize for profits. They are gonna bow down to whomever is in charge.

by elAhmo 9mo ago

Given the recent threats from Cloudflare against Italy and siding with Vance, Musk and co., this is definitely not a far-fetched reality. Big Tech has demonstrated which side they are going with.

aduwah 9mo ago

When did CF do this?

cirelli94 9mo ago
A week ago. https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/01/cloudflare-may-pull-servers-out-of-italy-over-order-that-it-block-pirate-sites/ https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/01/cloudflare-may-p...
- countWSS 9mo ago
  How much of internet can Cloudflare turn off in italy? They picked a fight with the cloud gorilla.
  - jonasdegendt 9mo ago
    About 20% of sites, and there’s some big services behind Cloudflare so that percentage doesn’t even tell the full story.
  - immibis 9mo ago
    When Spain blocks CF (it does this regularly), it breaks all CF sites. Of course, the actual problem here is organised crime. Spain and Italy do this because the mafia owns them.
    - oarsinsync 9mo ago
      > When Spain blocks CF (it does this regularly), it breaks all CF sites. Of course, the actual problem here is organised crime. Spain and Italy do this because the mafia owns them. Mafia has a vested interest in broadcast rights of football matches in Spain? Spain blocks Cloudflare because the football league La Liga has a court order that allows them to point to IP ranges that are hosting/fronting live streams of football matches, and get ISPs to block access to those ranges.
      - saghm 9mo ago
        If the sports league is influential enough to have a standing court order to be able to unilaterally block IP ranges for the entire country, I'd imagine that organized crime might take an interest. I have no idea if it's the case but when something already seems to have an outsized influence it wouldn't be crazy to imagine that others interested in that power would also take an interest. Moreover, I think the point of the parent comment is that they're blocking quite a bit more than just football games. It sounds like the claim is that the blocking is willfully broad because of other influences, not necessarily the the purported more narrow intent is necessarily from those influences.
      - immibis 9mo ago
        Which directly contravenes the Digital Services Act. And is only in place because LaLiga has strong ties to the mafia.
        anthk 9mo ago
        More than mafia, ex-francoists oligarchs. And these could be stomped down tomorrow from CF by cancelling all the tangent services for those, even for Spanish banks and related industries (tourist and construction avoiding both attacks and serious disbalancing harms). The Ibex 35 would near collapse overnight and Tebas being kicked out from their own people.
    - anthk 9mo ago
      In case of Spain, not the Mafia but ex-Francoist idiots. And if you want to know, our (ex?)-Fascists even bribed European mafias. Literally.
Findeton 9mo ago
It is more about government tax warfare. They fined CF because it didn’t censor what the italian government wanted them to censor, so they fined CF.

freehorse 9mo ago

Not submitting to state censorship requests is not a great example of what is the problem with Big Tech as discussed here.

elAhmo 9mo ago
I wasn't referring to the state censorship request, but rather to the 'flocking' to self-proclaimed champions of free speech in the current Trump administrations as a cry for help.
- freehorse 9mo ago
  I personally find that the fact that a private company compels a list of IPs and domains that they want blocked to get blocked more alarming than that.

mlrtime 9mo ago

Not really, you are framing this issue and dropping key words to make it political, are you a bot farming for engagement, please stop.

salviati 9mo ago
There were strong signals from the CF CEO that they align with the Trump administration. They threatened to pull the plug on all Italian customers. This is relevant to this conversation: CF recently acted in a way that makes some people think it might cut its services to people for political reasons. I don't find your comment particularly well articulated or continaing anything besides name calling (the "bot farming"). Can you articulate your opinion on the matter?
ezst 9mo ago
Not OP but, oh common. This entire thing IS political. Big Tech IS in bed with the authoritarian US apparatus, they have been very transparent about it. What are you expecting to gain from your message? Pedantry points?
- elAhmo 9mo ago
  OP, not a bot. CF definitely chose to be political in the message, so regardless of what Italy did or who is right and wrong, posting that message is just a message that reliance on CF can just be a bad idea long-term.
  - ezst 9mo ago
    Just for context, did you see this from CF's CEO? https://x.com/eastdakota/status/2009654937303896492 https://x.com/eastdakota/status/2009654937303896492 The bits about Vance, Musk and "freedom of speech" are not only completely unnecessary, but well over the top.
    - deleted 9mo ago
      [deleted]

ActorNightly 9mo ago

Big Tech is going to optimize for profits. They are gonna bow down to whomever is in charge.