Some websites go offline in Austria after sweeping block against Cloudflare IPs

Last week, Internet Service Providers (ISPs) in Austria received new instructions to block a new batch of domains and IP addresses, including the IP addresses of security and content delivery provider Cloudflare. The instructions came from legal action taken by Satel Film GmbH, DOR Film, and collecting society Wahrnehmung von Leistungsschutzrechten GmbH.

Non-compliance with blocking instructions can lead to legal action. So the ISPs had no choice, despite the fact that blocking the Cloudflare IP addresses affected a wide variety of non-piracy websites.

Local outlet Der Standard reported that Austrians started complaining about the unexpected website outages. In the past, ISPs were allowed to provide their input on blocking to the Austrian Regulatory Authority for Broadcasting and Telecommunications (RTR). However, that is no longer possible.