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Cloudflare CEO on the Italy fines

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Re: Cloudflare CEO on the Italy fines

#311

Post by superkuh »

>Italy insists a shadowy, European media cabal should be able to dictate what is and is not allowed online. That, of course, is DISGUSTING

What's equally disgusting is that one corporation has managed to put itself in the position to dictate these things instead. Cloudflare has literally been running a denial of service on congress.gov (any many other important domains) for at least 3 years if you aren't running latest chrome or latest firefox or similar.

Like a broken clock, he's not wrong. But it's the pot calling the kettle black.

Re: Cloudflare CEO on the Italy fines

#312

Post by oytis »

tick_tock_tick wrote: post #303
oytis wrote: post #273

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Western Europe is not an authoritarian dystopia by any measure. Economic growth or lack of thereof is absolutely irrelevant here

I mean they've certainly turned their back on classic western values like free speech and expression.

No? We've never had such an absolutist view on the freedom of speech as American Constitution holds. We still have enough of it to keep the political debate open to all points of view though (with a reservation for the paradox of tolerance)

Re: Cloudflare CEO on the Italy fines

#314

Post by UqWBcuFx6NV4r »

tjwebbnorfolk wrote: post #83
Arbortheus wrote: post #12

I agree with the CEO, while also feeling a bit nauseous at the MAGA Musk suck-up at the end - I suppose this is the game you have to play with this current administration.

[flagged]

Yes, I do.

“DEI bureaucracies” is a meaningless political term.

I am truly (not) sorry about whatever HR interaction has soured you.

Not everything every company does is related to US politics let alone that of the last 10 years. These “DEI bureaucracies” pre-date your “Biden administration”.

Believe it or not, there are many, many organisations that do not operate in or export to the US. Many of them have what I’m sure you would call “DEI bureaucracies”. What’s your explanation?

Re: Cloudflare CEO on the Italy fines

#316

Post by bflesch »

selfmodruntime wrote: post #283
bflesch wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I also wonder why he felt emboldened to escalate like this. Maybe he thinks Italy is so small it can be slapped around by a rage post on Twitter? There's a DNS blocklist from media industry applied by German ISPs and I assume Cloudflare was also asked to block these websites, so why didn't I read a story about Cloudflare making a big stir about the German DNS blocking?

> There's a DNS blocklist from media industry applied by German ISPs By the CUII with no judicial oversight. German organizations like the CCC and free speech activists very much hate that this is a thing.

Yes, I didn't want to say it is a good thing.

Re: Cloudflare CEO on the Italy fines

#317

Post by jacquesm »

iamnothere wrote: post #48
bflesch wrote: post #11

Not a good look on that guy to list his "pro-bono" services and threaten to pull them while asking JD Vance for his help. How is he expecting the Milano-Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics to influence some representative of media right holders who have fined Cloudflare? Is he assuming that just because all of the listed things are Italian they can just make the fine go away?

This is taking place in a larger geopolitical context. He is applying whatever pressure that Cloudflare can apply on its own (not much), and he mentions Vance as a way to call for US administration help at a time when the US is entering an open economic conflict with Europe. Tech and speech regulation is a central feature of that conflict. IMHO this is a time when there are no good players. I support CF’s fight to ke…

CF is a US company, the EU has the right to make their own - misguided - laws. And CF has the option to simply stop doing business with Italy, or comply with the law. This stupid grandstanding is just a thinly veiled attempt at blackmail which I'm sure will very much impress the legislators and the judges of the country to which it is addressed. /s

Re: Cloudflare CEO on the Italy fines

#318

Post by Foxboron »

ExpertAdvisor01 wrote: post #264
Foxboron wrote: post #47

So blocking Kiwifarms took.. months of activism and loud complaining. Heraled by Matthew as "this is an extraordinary decision for us to make and, given Cloudflare's role as an Internet infrastructure provider, a dangerous one that we are not comfortable with". However a fine that amounts to ~0.7% of the annual revenue and they threaten to block an entire country?

Actually, the fine amounts to over 200% of Italy-sourced revenue ($17 million fine vs. $8 million in revenue in 2024). Why would you continue doing business in Italy?

They are a conglomerate and per Matthews words "an internet infrastructure provider". Why does the local revenue matter when they are serving a global market?

EDIT: And fwiw, "Why would you continue doing business in Italy?" is not what is being proposed. They are threatening to block 55 million people from ~20% of the world wide web.

Re: Cloudflare CEO on the Italy fines

#319

Post by bflesch »

foxglacier wrote: post #296
bflesch wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"It is better to keep your mouth closed and let people think you are a fool than to open it and remove all doubt." I think this clearly shows the hubris of Cloudflare CEO. Cloudflare is simply not important enough in Europe, and he unnecessarily provided a scapegoat "evil US tech company" for European media and politicians to slaughter. In terms of corporate politics it's not clever for him to attach his name to this…

His hubris isn't news. Remember when he woke up in the middle of the night and blocked some website because he personally didn't like it?

No, haven't heard that story. Can you share a source?

Re: Cloudflare CEO on the Italy fines

#320

Post by tick_tock_tick »

wrxd wrote: post #158
socalgal2 wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> He phrases it to be as if the free tier is a favor Cloudflare does to the world, as if it's not obviously a loss-leader designed to get more people into the Cloudflare ecosystem. It can be both. I run many open source websites behind cloudflare. It's the same as github. All the free hosting and free CIs and free issues/discussion forums, and free code review for open source repos (90% of all open source projects?)…

What market share would they have without offering the free tier? Much lower than what they have now, and that would make for a more decentralised and resilient internet

> and that would make for a more decentralised and resilient internet

The only people that say that haven't run a site on the open internet in the last decade plus. It's such an ignorant takes it's hard to take anything you say seriously.

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