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He did mention that they were fighting the law before they were fined and they plan to challenge the fine in court. He has also been vocal about other similar legislation before they were enacted or the company got fined (not sure about this specific one though).

So I don't think it's fair to characterize it as he "only complains about it when his company is fined".

He also said this:

> In the meantime, we remain happy to discuss this with Italian government officials who, so far, have been unwilling to engage beyond issuing fines.

which, although his rant really pisses me off, further proves your point.

He's giving Italy and Italians fair warning that he will abandon the Italian market to avoid being subject to their laws, and I think it will go that way. I guess it's up to the Italians to find a replacement.

Find a replacement global edge network and get the rest of the world to use it?

At least 2 major competitors have good enough global edge networks.

Can't have a global edge network without also being a big player - something Cloudflare is disliked for. You're suggesting everyone move to a new provider, so we can dislike the new vendor instead?

Why does his rant piss you off?

Likely because it mentions JD Vance and the current US administration in a positive light, since they have rightly shone a bright light on the active decline of free speech in Europe.

Thanks for answering for me but you got it wrong. Believe it or not other people can be as nuanced as the CEO of Cloudflare.

Curious, why does his rant piss you off?

I've had the pleasure of working for CEOs who don't resort to public threats (or all caps) to get their point across. When I chose who leads me or who I work with stability and consistency are key. This just sounds like a man who thinks he can flex his way out of a problem and that is just such a short sited way to solve problems. Not my kind of CEO.

Why shouldn't they resort to strongarming? Italy literally wants to blacklist IPs at whim for the entire planet. Cloudflare CEO is 100% in the right to strongarm them. Who do these people even think they are, to censor the planet's DNS?

They are not censoring the planets dns. Cloudflare is a private company that provides dns resolution and it must comply with the local laws of the multiple places it engages in business with.

Just like every other company. From italian isps to vodafone to google.

What makes cloudflare so special?

> financing a company that thinks it is above the law

I've never liked arguments like this, because laws are often complex, unreasonable, and unjust, and all of us (both individuals and companies) routinely use our best judgment to decide which laws to flout and which to follow, and when, where, and why to do so.

I share that perspective. Being an international company is a challenging thing regards law. You have to operate in best intent, and judges respect that.

And sure, some laws and most likely this one, are stupid. I always take GDPR as an example. Annoying as fuck, but a good regulation. Well written, well executed and hits its goal.

However, disrespecting and being tone deaf in communication is wrong, ignoring the intent (Italian based legal control of IP violations) is wrong and treating the Internet as a legal free space (or only accept US perspective) is wrong. Italy is a sovereign state and the Internet is operating there and on its citizens. It has all right and duty to do so. We have to respect that.

It feels good to see someone give a giant middle finger to corruption.

A giant middle finger to corruption by sucking up the most corrupt government the US has ever seen?

I don't know if you read the tweet? Maybe give it another go.

I did. It reads exactly the same. Suck up to the current US government.

Did Matthew donate to the Trump ballroom yet?

> And sure, some laws and most likely this one, are stupid. I always take GDPR as an example. Annoying as fuck, but a good regulation. Well written, well executed and hits its goal.

It's funny people normally use GDPR as an example of a law so poorly written and implemented that the sites of the very EU governments that passed it are still not in compliance a decade later.

For real. Laws likee anti-circumvention laws are a horrible plague on humanity. There's all kinds of nonsense & so often businesses have far too much sway or outright grasp over the legal system.

You can't be a hacker without having any Question Authority backbone or will. You don't have to be full onboard but very few nations seem capable of behaving at all reasonably when it comes to technology. And few even have the chance to do right: American corporate empire has insisted countries adopt particularly brutal ip laws for decades, and made trade contingent upon it.

The Declaration of Independence of Cyberspace & Doctorow's recent talk on the EU needing their own break for Cyberspace & IP Independence are both important revealing materials here. https://www.eff.org/cyberspace-independence https://media.ccc.de/v/39c3-a-post-american-enshittification... https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46420951 https://www.eff.org/cyberspace-independence

Yes i offered a simplification, but reality is often nuanced. But, if you are in business, you accepted the terms and profited from them; Im not disputing how stupid or far-fetched the law is - Im just pointing out the child in the room.

If it is as the rant describes, every other company operating in the italian market has also to accomodate this; where is the rant from the other CEOs? From the telecom providers? From the VPN endpoints?

Style aside, what do you think he should do? Faced with a law that not only imposes disproportionate fines (more than revenue from the country), but on the surface also requires blocking globally, there are really only a few things to do:

1. Challenge the law in court

3. Influence the law via political means

3. Try to sway public opinion so 2. may be easier

4. Give in and play ball

5. Exit the country entirely

It looks like he skipped 1 and 2 and went straight for option 3. I wonder why that is.

how ever did you reach that conclusion? For 1, his tweet literally says "That, of course, is DISGUSTING and even before yesterday’s fine we had multiple legal challenges pending against the underlying scheme." 2 is something that happens behind the doors, and it's rather uncharitable to just assume he skipped it.

That's fair, but he also didn't give any specifics. If Cloudflare is suing Italy there should be some documents we can read.

> Challenge the law in court

Do the courts in Italy work or do they do what the govt wants them to do.

The government complains everyday about the judges and it's trying to make a referendum to make judges angry, so I wouldn't say courts do what govt says

Yes, the judiciary is an independent branch in Italy, alongside the executive and the legislative.

What did the other major companies do?

When I read this I was thinking that I'd be grateful for the CEO of a company I worked for to write this.

As long as they don't go off the rails like Musk and others have, its good to see them pasionate and fight for the company. The reverse is MUCH worse.

What is an example of a crazy law from EU?

https://fightchatcontrol.eu

Agreed. But to be fair, the proposal was rejected.

Not for long, seemingly.

The fact that it was even proposed in the first place is still concerning.

It wasn't, it passed on the Council of EU.

Effective ban of GMOs across EU, ban on paternity tests in France without a court order are the two that come to mind for me.

What does the French law have to do with the EU?

Example of a crazy law within the EU

This 1000x times!

Crying free speech and attempting to rile up the tech bros is just what companies do these days.

It doesn't matter if, like this issue, it has absolutely nothing to do with free speech; if you position yourself as a defender of the "open internet", "open source", "free thinking" or "innovation" you get every dingleberry that hangs off Musk to come and defend you.

American free speech as of 2026 includes openly threatening to invade European territory unless it is given away.

It's funny how America can force it's own crappy content protection laws to the entire globe, but another country can't have their own.

The current administration is burning good will to America with it's allies at an alarming rate. This isn't good for stability or world order. I think this year is could be a contender to be the worst one yet of this millennium as we find other despots empowered by America's actions.

> I don't feel comfortable financing a company that thinks it is above the law

Of all the companies to make that claim about in 2026, Cloudflare would not be very high on the list I would think... Also, hopefully you're not paying for any genAI services and making that statement?