Cloudflare CEO on the Italy fines

Post by tacker2000 » Fri, Jan 09, 2026, 5:51 PM UTC

bflesch wrote: post #55

grayhatter wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He replies to an Italian user > We can’t offer free services in a country that fines us millions unreasonably. Fix your government or lose access to our charity. On one hand, I agree with you, it's problematic to threaten collective punishment. However, I don't think it's unreasonable to "divest" from a country trying to fine you for behavior outside of said country. It's also important to communicate that clearly, a…

I think it is a big strategic mistake for him to personally take ownership of this topic and to elevate it on a political level. He openly aligned himself with two people who are extremely unpopular in Europe, while threatening an important EU member state. I think his hubris makes him overestimate Cloudflare's importance for Europe. Cloudflare is simply not important enough. If it was Microsoft or Apple threatening,…

Post by s-y » Fri, Jan 09, 2026, 5:53 PM UTC

testdelacc1 wrote: post #42

s-y wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Musk is a contrarian. He, however, is not a government body (nor does he represent one, u can choose to include the dubious Doge efforts into the discussion but that will devolve into semantics that do not negate the point). As a private citizen with a platform for which he overpaid - he can do as he pleases within the confines of said platform. Musk, however, cannot enforce fines on other providers and request stuff…

He can do whatever he wants on that platform. Equally, can elected officials decide to ban that private platform?

Post by bflesch » Fri, Jan 09, 2026, 5:53 PM UTC

ben_w wrote: post #61

Almondsetat wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He contradicts himself in the span of a single sentence. How is it possible that this was done solely by Italy (with concerns from the rest of the EU) and yet this is the work of a cabal of European media elites? If this were true, why isn't the entire EU involved?

That's not really a self-contradiction; if we pretend the USA's copyright lobby had made California pass a similar law… well, that might not work, I have no idea if that would be unconstitutional inter-state trade restriction or something in the USA, but for the sake of showing why it's not a self-contradiction can we pretend? If the US media elites had convinced California to do that, they'd be a "shadowy cabal of […

Post by tacker2000 » Fri, Jan 09, 2026, 5:54 PM UTC

t8sr wrote: post #51

elAhmo wrote: post #40

[flagged]

I read the tweet twice and I don’t see any mention of free speech. What he’s describing, when you look past the rhetoric, sounds ridiculous: a single medium sized country is demanding power to institute global blocks of content on the internet? If that’s an accurate description, that’s deeply concerning for the long term viability of the internet.

Post by nektro » Fri, Jan 09, 2026, 5:55 PM UTC