According to TechRadar, Cloudflare’s IP blocking systems are causing recurring weekend internet outages across Spain as part of LaLiga and Telefónica’s anti-piracy campaign against illegal football streams. The blocking initiative began in February 2025 and has created a predictable pattern of disruptions every weekend during televised Spanish football matches. Proton VPN registered a staggering 2,500% surge in new sign-ups from the Iberian Peninsula in October alone as Spaniards sought immediate workarounds. The free VPN service offers a quick fix, though users need premium plans to fully bypass restrictions and access streaming content. Meanwhile, Cloudflare is fighting these false positive incidents in court while the blocking continues to affect legitimate domains alongside targeted pirate sites.
Why everyone’s suddenly downloading VPNs
Here’s the thing about internet restrictions – they create immediate demand for workarounds. When your weekend browsing gets disrupted because some football executives decided to nuke entire IP ranges, people get creative fast. Proton VPN’s 2,500% surge isn’t just a number – it’s a massive middle finger to clumsy anti-piracy tactics. And honestly, can you blame them? When your ISP starts breaking legitimate sites because they can’t tell the difference between pirate streams and regular internet traffic, you’re going to look for solutions.
The timing is almost comically predictable. Proton confirmed this happens “like clockwork” every weekend when Spanish football airs. It’s become so routine that people are probably setting calendar reminders: “Saturday 3 PM – turn on VPN before internet breaks.” The free version gets you basic access, but the real solution requires upgrading. Conveniently, Proton is running Black Friday deals right now – talk about perfect timing.
This is just the beginning of the fight
Now here’s where it gets interesting. Spain hasn’t gone after VPN providers yet, but the writing is on the wall. France already scored a legal victory against five VPN services back in May, forcing them to block access to illegal sports sites. Italy’s following suit, with Portugal and Belgium exploring similar tactics. So how long until Spain joins the party?
Basically, we’re watching an arms race between copyright holders and internet users. First they block domains, then they block IPs, then people use VPNs, then they try to block VPNs. Where does it end? The DNS poisoning techniques that Cloudflare and others are developing could make this even messier. We’re heading toward a future where your internet experience depends entirely on which corporate interests are fighting which battles that particular weekend.
What this means for internet freedom
Look, I get that content creators deserve to get paid. But when anti-piracy measures start breaking the internet for everyone, we’ve got a problem. The collateral damage here is massive – legitimate sites going dark because some algorithm can’t distinguish between pirate streams and regular traffic. And let’s be real: the people determined to watch pirated content will always find a way. They always have.
The real victims here are casual internet users who just want to browse normally on weekends. They’re the ones dealing with broken sites and slow connections. And they’re the ones driving that 2,500% VPN surge – not hardcore pirates, but regular people fed up with their internet being held hostage by football broadcasting rights.
Proton’s tweet about the predictable weekend pattern highlights how broken this system has become. When users can set their watches by internet outages caused by corporate anti-piracy measures, something has gone terribly wrong. The internet wasn’t supposed to work this way – and if this continues, we might need to rethink how we balance copyright enforcement with basic internet functionality.
