Because yes, x.com and Redsys were among the domains affected this past weekend, collateral victims of the IP block ordered by the courts and promoted by LaLiga, under the leadership of its president Javier Tebas, and executed by order of Commercial Court No. 6 of Barcelona, in compliance with Judgment No. 310/2024, dated December 18, 2024.
A legal move that was supposed to fight illegal practices… but instead triggered a selective blackout across half the internet, as if the fight against piracy could be waged with a sledgehammer instead of a scalpel.
And the strangest part isn’t just the technical blunder, but that white, sober, supposedly neutral splash page (see image) shown by some ISP in place of the actual site. A message with the tone of a tired teacher, that not only blocks your access but also redirects you to laliga.com to read an “informative note” sprinkled with legal jargon… and zero self-awareness.
A scene straight out of a low-budget Black Mirror episode with a legal-administrative twist.
Content Protection or Corporate Reputation Violation?
This is where we enter dangerous territory, when the defense of legitimate rights turns into an attack on the rights of third parties.
Because we’re not just talking about individual users. This move, in its technical clumsiness, has affected both large and small companies, communication platforms, digital media, and thousands of legitimate projects whose reputation has been damaged by being associated with that label.
The paradox? The message does not clarify that the block is indiscriminate, nor that it could be affecting fully legal sites. In fact, it visually associates those domains with illegal behavior, which could directly clash with Organic Law 1/1982, of May 5th, for the civil protection of the right to honor, personal and family privacy, and personal image.
Because in a hyperconnected environment, digital reputation is part of professional and corporate honor, and being blocked by a ruling, without having committed any infringement, should have very serious consequences.
Who needs pirates when you have clumsy rulings?
Let’s break it down, like the TCP packets that never arrived because someone misblocked an IP:
IPv6 yes, IPv4 no: welcome to the Power Firewallᴶᵀ
Yes, it’s that ridiculous. The judicial block applied by LaLiga — orchestrated under the leadership of Javier Tebas — is so technically clumsy that even on your own connection, if you use IPv6, you bypass the blocks like a champion. If you’re on IPv4, you hit the “white screen of nonsense.”
Next, let’s block IPv6 next weekend.
VPNs, proxies, and black magic
Just two clicks, a tunnel, and voilà: you’re now viewing the “illegal” (or more accurately, perfectly legal) website that the Power Firewallᴶᵀ tried to block.
This is not cybersecurity. This is cyber theater. A poorly executed judicial show, with more collateral damage than actual effectiveness. Because anyone who wants to pirate will do it, they’re two steps ahead. The one who doesn’t… ends up blocked by mistake.
Cloudflare under fire: everyone on the ground
When LaLiga shoots, Cloudflare falls. But it doesn’t just fall, it drags down an entire ecosystem of legitimate websites, from independent media to open-source communities. Even x.com, Elon Musk’s platform, has been hit with the white label and LaLiga’s URL, as if it were part of a clandestine network.
Serious question: does anyone really check the collateral damage before pulling the pin?
Folks, this is not fighting piracy. This is throwing logic bombs into a room full of innocents and then justifying it with a PDF and a press release or by sharing it on x.
Cynicism at its finest.
In the end, a kid with Wi-Fi, a free VPN, and five minutes to spare could bypass this block while watching the match, streaming, and posting a TikTok mocking LaLiga.
Meanwhile, millions of legitimate transactions via Redsys crash against the “block” wall, as collateral damage from a misdirected digital crusade. Because yes, someone at LaLiga thought that in order to catch a pirate, they had to sink the whole port.
But the worst part isn’t the block. It’s the contempt.
Instead of acknowledging that they are stomping on the Internet with concrete boots and an outdated GPS, Javier Tebas from LaLiga has chosen to call those who monitor, analyze, and question these sloppy blocks “geeks.”
Because, of course, it’s easier to ridicule the one who points out the error… than to do the work to fix it. A strategy as cowardly as it is revealing.
Free advice for Javier Tebas and his legal team: those “geeks” you belittle are the same ones who reboot servers at 3 a.m. so the country can check its email, pay taxes, or watch football legally.
Ridiculing them? It only demonstrates a staggering ignorance of the digital environment they’re trying to regulate with blunt judicial force. An ecosystem they don’t understand but have no qualms about bombing.
Let me spell it out for you: The internet isn’t managed with rulings written in Word 2003 and executed like a poorly closed Excel sheet. And certainly not by ridiculing those who actually know how it works.
Football isn’t protected with judicial firewalls; it’s defended with digital strategy.
Blocking IPs at random solves nothing. Pirates are always one step ahead, using tools that LaLiga doesn’t even know exist, and in the meantime, you, the regular citizen, can’t access a website you use every day.
Because the problem isn’t that there are laws. The problem is that they’re being applied wrongly, without technical knowledge, without proportional oversight, and with contempt for digital freedom and online reputation.
Final jab
👉 Javier Tebas has invented the Power Firewallᴶᵀ: a mix of ego, technical ignorance, and judicial abuse, disguised as cybersecurity. It blocks websites, protocols, platforms… and even the patience of users.
All with the elegance of someone trying to repair fiber optics with duct tape and arrogance.
And when the mess is evident, he doesn’t correct it, he blames the user, the protocol, the weather, his dog…
Anyone, except the real problem — an analog power trying to control a digital world with legal sledgehammers and misunderstood cables.
Spoiler: The “geeks” you so despise not only understand the Internet better than you, they are the only ones who can turn it back on when you break it with a hammer.
And they will… while laughing at your “Power Firewallᴶᵀ” live on Twitch.
Every action has its reaction. And this time, washing your hands in press conferences or hiding behind rulings won’t be enough: when you stomp on the network, the network responds.
