In 2024, Italy’s communications regulator deployed its Piracy Shield ticketing and ISP notification platform in 2024, to mixed reviews. In early January 2026, AGCOM levied a penalty of more than 14 million euros against the company Cloudflare Inc., for noncompliance with an order to disable the DNS resolution of domain names and the routing of network traffic to IP addresses that were reported by rights holders through Piracy Shield.
Elisa Giomi is one of the Commissioners for AGCOM, and notably, was the lone Commissioner to object to the fine. In late January, following AGCOM’s decision to fine Cloudflare, she spoke independently again; to justify her decision, accompanied with articles published by two major Italian newspaper.
She found that there were two weaknesses to the AGCOM decision. First, that alerts by Piracy Shield that would notify ISPs to block sites that it found to be infringing are not necessarily accurate and at the same time, “who checks that the blockade has hit the right target and that the impact on (legitimate) services is minimized?” Secondly, and “conversely, the absence of (infringement) complaints does not necessarily mean the absence of problems.”
Quoting her from La Repubblica, “To achieve a fundamental goal such as combating piracy, it is necessary to go into the merits, avoiding populist fans and narratives capable of emotionally mobilizing public opinion but also misleading it through real hallucinations.”
Social post
To demonstrate that she has no axe to grind, she posted further commentary on LinkedIn: “For each of my votes against a measure (5% in 5 years, for the record) alongside criticism I have always proposed possible correctives or alternative solutions. I also did it for Piracy Shield and this very long interview hosted by La Repubblica and La Stampa whom I thank, (for) providing me with the opportunity to present some of them publicly.”
Why it matters
Ms. Giomi continued, “The Authority cannot find itself strangled in the binary choice between the ideology of the free Internet and the imperative of fighting piracy at any cost. And here it would help if the public debate also avoided getting stuck in hyper-simplifying contrasts such as “wild west versus rules” and “censorship versus legality.”
Further reading
[ Statement in defense of Cloudflare ]. Social media post. January 19, 2026. by Elisa Giomi. Commissioner at AGCOM Italian Independent Regulatory Authority for Communications, via LinkedIn.
Giomi (AGCOM): “Piracy Shield is unbalanced and has out-of-management costs. Wrong to fine Cloudflare.” Article. January 21, 2026. by Arcangelo Rociola. La Repubblica (Italy)
