Cloudflare has threatened to discontinue its services in Italy in protest after being fined approximately $17 million) for allegedly failing to comply with the country’s new anti-piracy laws.

Italy’s Piracy Shield law, which was introduced back in 2023, gives the country’s Communications Regulatory Authority (AGCOM) the power to order Italian ISPs to block access to domains or IP addresses copyright holders deem to be hosting pirated content. The law also applies to VPN and DNS providers. But the real kicker is that providers have just 30 minutes to block the site or domain once they receive the notification.

Cloudflare was subject to one of the first financial penalties imposed under Italian law, for allegedly failing to comply with Piracy Shield rules, even after notification of the order.

AGCOM can issue fines of up to 2% of the turnover achieved in the last financial year ending before notification of the dispute to firms that fail to comply. In this instance, Cloudflare was slapped with a fine equal to 1% of its global turnover.

But the vendor isn’t taking this lying down, and is instead going on the offensive. CEO Matthew Prince launched a scathing defense on X (formerly Twitter), claiming the rules amounted to censorship.

“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,” Prince wrote.

“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," Prince continued. "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.”

Prince said in the wake of the fine, Cloudflare is considering pulling its offer of pro bono cybersecurity services they were set to provide for the upcoming Winter Olympics in Milan and Cortina d'Ampezzo, as well as removing all servers from Italian cities.

Plans for an Italian Cloudflare office may also be axed, with the CEO confirming it has multiple legal challenges pending against the law he described as “unjust.”

Prince said he planned to meet with U.S. administration officials in the coming days to discuss the situation, and even went as far as to add: “In this case, Elon Musk is right: Free speech is critical and under attack from an out-of-touch cabal of very disturbed European policy makers.”

“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,” Prince wrote. “And Italy certainly has no right to regulate what is and is not allowed on the internet in the U.S., the United Kingdom, Canada, China, Brazil, India, or anywhere outside its borders.”

Italy marks the second European country where Cloudflare finds itself in the crosshairs.

A Spanish court order gave the country’s soccer league the power to force near-weekly mass blockages of Cloudflare-based IP addresses to prevent piracy – an ongoing issue that effectively takes down a huge swatch of legitimate Spanish internet services during matchdays.