With the start of every football season, one of the most aggressive digital filtering mechanisms in Europe also comes back. Backed by court rulings, LaLiga, the employers' association chaired by Javier Tebas, orders Spanish operators to block in real time hundreds of IP addresses allegedly linked to the illegal broadcasting of matches.
The initial aim is to curb piracy, but the real effect is another: the internet does not work with dedicated servers for each website, so when an IP is cut off it drags down with it a whole range of services that have nothing to do with football. In other words, LaLiga has court-granted rights that allow it to submit lists of IPs and have them blocked in Spain. And this clearly runs counter to the principle of net neutrality.
