Laliga's ip crackdown: collateral damage hits openai, twitch, and more
Spain’s top soccer league, LaLiga, is facing a torrent of criticism for its aggressive strategy to combat online piracy – a strategy that’s ensnaring legitimate websites and services in a sweeping net of IP address blocks. What began as an attempt to curb illegal streaming has escalated into a controversy impacting everything from educational platforms to popular gaming services, prompting accusations of overreach and a disregard for internet neutrality.
The broad brush of laliga's anti-piracy measures
For over a year, LaLiga, under the leadership of Javier Tebas, has been pressuring Spanish internet service providers (ISPs) like Orange, Digi, and Movistar to swiftly shut down any IP addresses suspected of hosting pirated content. The league’s argument, backed by two separate court rulings, hinges on swiftly dismantling pirate IPTV operations. However, the execution has been disastrous, indiscriminately blocking access to sites sharing IP addresses with those engaged in piracy. The fallout includes outages for OpenAI's ChatGPT, the Real Academia Española (RAE), Twitch, and numerous other legitimate Spanish institutions.
Tebas has dismissed complaints about these collateral damages, famously calling critics “nerds” and insisting there haven’t been widespread disruptions. But the reality on the ground paints a different picture.
Beyond 'four nerds': the tangible impact
The league’s dismissive attitude is particularly galling to companies like Codely, an educational platform for developers. They have been blocked since February 2025, with Movistar failing to lift the restrictions during league days. “They’re blocking Cloudflare, the service we use on our Codely Pro platform, where individuals and companies pay for AI and software development courses – courses that have absolutely nothing to do with pirating soccer,” Codely stated in a public announcement. The implications extend far beyond a single platform; Codely points out that legitimate services like Steam (boasting over 130 million monthly active users) and MadridSalud could also be caught in LaLiga's indiscriminate net.
The league's aggressive tactics have now expanded to include Google, with LaLiga lodging 17 criminal complaints alleging intellectual property theft and money laundering.
But what’s most concerning isn't just the immediate disruption, but the precedent it sets. Codely rightly argues that no organization should possess the power to unilaterally decide which websites deserve access. “If you’re a platform for ‘four nerds,’ you deserve the service you pay for,” they assert, questioning LaLiga’s moral authority to dictate internet access.
A threat to net neutrality?
Critics contend that LaLiga’s approach undermines the principle of net neutrality, prioritizing the league’s interests over the open and equitable access to information online. The situation is further complicated when ISPs like Movistar fail to promptly remove the blocks, as happened on March 23, 2026, prolonging the disruption for services like Codely Pro.
While established channels exist for reporting piracy to platforms like Cloudflare, allowing for targeted action without broad IP blocks, LaLiga appears to be ignoring these established protocols. As Codely notes, “If LaLiga were a serious entity that respected standard internet practices, this wouldn’t be happening.”
For now, the path forward remains uncertain. Despite growing opposition and legal challenges, LaLiga shows no signs of backing down, leaving users to resort to VPNs to bypass the restrictions – a workaround that feels less like a solution and more like a symptom of a deeply flawed strategy. The Spanish government has so far remained conspicuously silent on the matter, leaving the future of internet access in Spain hanging in the balance.