- Cloudflare has started to block many pirate areas for users in the United Kingdom
- Hundreds of illegal streaming sites could be affected
- This is the first time an internet intermediary has started blocking pirate sites in the United Kingdom
Cloudflare has just started to block access to certain pirate streaming websites – but only for Users in the United Kingdom.
Pirate streaming sites are generally blocked by most of the largest Internet service providers (ISP) in the United Kingdom. However, these restrictions can often be bypassed using one of the best VPN suppliers. Not this time – the use of a British VPN termination point always triggers the block, preventing the website from being loaded.
Cloudflare blocked websites due to a legal order, most likely published by the Motion Picture Association (MPA). According to reports, up to 200 areas may be affected by this new block.
Cloudflare blocks illegal flows in the United Kingdom for the first time
The Cloudflare block on pirate streaming websites in the United Kingdom seems to have entered into force this month, but the legal affair may have started in February 2024.
Due to this block, users who try to visit the pirate streaming sites are confronted with an error. Cloudflare HTTP 451 error is reserved for situations when a website is blocked for legal reasons.
Cloudflare does not seem to be part of this conflict, however. As the Lumen database reveals, a private law firm pronounced a court order in Google, listing 14 websites – but Torrentfreak estimates that up to 200 pirate areas could be affected.
Many British citizens are already used for blocked pirate streaming sites. The FAI such as BT, Virgin Media and Sky generally perform these blocks after the judicial orders, which means that many users will never see the error message from Cloudflare – their ISP will prevent loading. However, these blocks are easily bypassed with a VPN, which allows you to keep your activities private.
Many users often connect to a VPN server based in the same country to avoid high latency, but Cloudflare involvement makes this impossible. If the ISP does not catch it, Cloudflare himself will.
Can you always use a VPN to access these websites?
The Cloudflare block goes beyond what any ISP can place on a given website. As the geo-locking blocking is used, websites are simply not available in the United Kingdom, Point Blank.
For the first time, this also means that the use of a virtual private network (VPN) will not bypass these restrictions, as long as the server is based in the United Kingdom.
Although we cannot test this ourselves, the connection to a VPN based outside the United Kingdom could still help to get around these blocks. Keep in mind that this content is considered illegal and that Techradar does not tolerate using VPN to access pirate websites.
An increase in anti-piratorship orders
Cloudflare operates one of the fastest public public resolve (domain name system) in the world. He is responsible for connecting billions of users to the desired websites, and as such, he can also intervene and prevent them from doing so before any network change tool can interfere. This is why these blocks also affect VPN users.
Cloudflare previously criticized the locking of the anti-piration network as ineffective and exaggerated. The company previously told Techradar that “network blocking will never be the solution”.
Vice-president of Cloudflare and the world leader in public policy, Alissa Starzak, went so far as to say that such efforts have collateral effects and that they “ruin the internet”. Cloudflare even appealed to the Spanish Constitutional Court earlier this year, trying to fight the IP blocking during the La Liga football games.
DNS suppliers are not the only ones to be targeted in Europe, as efforts to get rid of piracy continue.
Canal +, a large French streaming supplier, won a legal victory in May when a historic decision ordered five popular VPN suppliers to block access to more than 200 illegal sports streaming sites. However, this has aroused questions about the place where the border between hacking and censorship is really traced.
