Broadcasters and rights owners demand X stamps down on signal piracy

August 1 – A group of Europe’s top broadcasters and leagues are demanding more action from social media platform X, formerly Twitter, against the distribution of illegal content.

A letter obtained by The Associated Press has 14 signatories, including the Premier League, Spanish league, Bundesliga, Italian league, DAZN, Sky, beIN, DirecTV and Movistar Plus+.  UEFA and Conmebol also signed the letter.

The signatories “draw X’s immediate attention to its persistent failings in the fight against the availability of unlawful content on its platform and urgently call for a meeting with X’s representatives to address this unacceptable situation.”

“X’s approach to taking down unlawful live content notified to them is woefully insufficient and inadequate,” the letter to CEO Linda Yaccarino adds.

“This makes our respective intensive efforts to tackle this problem hugely inefficient. Critically, since you acquired the platform, we have witnessed a demoralizing reduction in technical support making it ever more difficult to engage with the platform in any kind of meaningful discussion on this topic.”

The letter added there is “an increased perception among pirates that they can do as they wish on X with impunity,” resulting in an increased number of illegal live streams of games and ”making the overall situation absolutely untenable.” They said “X is increasingly the home of unlawful social media piracy.”

“The signatories to this letter express their severe concern as to the current state of affairs and urge X to take all necessary measures to (i) become a responsible platform which respects intellectual property and (ii) comply in full of its obligations under Digital Services Act as soon as possible.”

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