threatened

Cloudlflare CEO threatens withdrawal of Milano-Cortina Olympics funding following fine by Italian communications watchdog.

United States internet company Cloudflare has threatened to pull its services in Italy, including for the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics, after being fined 14 million euros ($16m) for failing to tackle online piracy.

Italy’s independent communications watchdog, Agcom, announced the fine on Thursday for “ongoing violation of the anti-piracy law”, notably failing to disable content flagged under its “Piracy Shield” system.

The system allows rightsholders of livestreamed events to report pirated content through an automated platform, with providers required to block the content within 30 minutes.

In a lengthy post on X late Friday, Cloudflare chief executive Matthew Prince condemned what he said was a “scheme to censor the internet”.

He said the system had “no judicial oversight”, no appeal process and no transparency, and required services to block content not just in Italy, but globally.

Cloudflare had already launched legal challenges against the scheme and would now fight the fine, which he called “unjust”.

He also said his company was considering “discontinuing the millions of dollars in pro bono cyber-security services we are providing the upcoming Milano-Cortina Olympics”.

Prince said he would be discussing the issue with US officials in Washington, DC, next week and would then head to Lausanne for talks with the International Olympic Committee (IOC), which is organising the February 6-22 Winter Games in northern Italy.

He also warned his company could discontinue its free cybersecurity services for Italy-based users, remove all servers from Italian cities and scrap plans to invest in the country.

Cloudflare is a platform that provides services including security, traffic management and optimisation for websites and applications.

It claims to manage about 20 percent of global internet traffic.

Agcom says that since its adoption in February 2024, Piracy Shield has led to the disabling of at least 65,000 fully-qualified domain names (FQDN) and approximately 14,000 IP addresses.

HELEN Flanagan was issued a warning from her fans after threatening to “destroy” her ex Scott Sinclair.

The former Coronation Street actress split up from her footballer fiance in 2022, but the pair has struggled to co-parent their three children with Helen recently lashing out at him on Instagram.

Helen called Scott “a piece of s**t” for missing their youngest son’s nativity play, but it seems trouble must have been brewing weeks ago.

The actress posted to TikTok wearing a sexy, animal print corset top and brushed her blonde her as an audio recording of boxer Tyson Fury played over the top.

The audio from 2017 was Tyson saying: “I will destroy you, I will dismantle you, I will dissect you like an insect, smash you to pieces without no hesitation.”

It was a warning to fellow Brit boxer, Anthony Joshua and Helen joked that she too was using it as a threat to Scott.

HEL & BACK

How Helen Flanagan’s split from Scott turned nuclear & why Xmas may spark clash

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Helen Flanagan cuts last tie with ex Scott Sinclair after lashing out at footballer

“My voice notes to my baby dad ( I’m 5ft 4, and struggle to open a bottle of water),” Helen captioned the TikTok.

Her fans were divided about the video and shared their thoughts in the comment section.

“Please be careful posting content like this Helen, if he ever took you to Court over child access, his representation would happily use this against you. Also, your eldest is at an age where she may see this and whatever has happened between you as adults seeing stuff like this about her Dad may upset her,” wrote one person.

Another added: “Hope your kids don’t see this. Take the high ground hun. Even if he is a piece of s***. Your future self will thank you.”

And a third commented: “All I’ll say is yes queen.”

Things seemed to go nuclear between Helen and Scott this week when she slated him online for missing son Charlie’s nativity play.

Helen this week lashed out this week at the Bristol Rovers footballer who was living it up in Abu Dhabi, rather than at Charlie’s big day.

The actress labelled her ex a “piece of s**t” after he posted photos of himself at the F1 Grand Prix in Abu Dhabi over the weekend.

She shared his post to her Instagram stories and added: “How dare you not turn up to Charlie’s nativity.”

The couple who split in 2022, share children Matilda, 10, and seven-year-old Delilah as well as son Charlie, four.

And now, a source has revealed that Helen was expecting Scott to watch Charlie’s nativity play due to her busy workload.

She is currently starring as The Wicked Queen in a production of Snow White in Liverpool.