Cloudflare's Transparency Report reveals that it has increased its use of 'geoblocking,' which blocks access to pirated websites and other sensitive content from specific regions, ninefold compared to the same period last year.

Cloudflare has released its transparency report for the second half of 2025. According to the report, Cloudflare has seen a surge in cases of 'geoblocking,' which blocks access to pirated websites from specific regions, with the number of cases being increased more than ninefold compared to the same period last year.

Cloudflare Transparency Report | Cloudflare

https://www.cloudflare.com/transparency/

Cloudflare Reports Surge in Geo-Blocked Pirate Site Domains * TorrentFreak
https://torrentfreak.com/cloudflare-reports-surge-in-geo-blocked-pirate-site-domains/

According to Cloudflare's transparency report, Cloudflare received 121,681 copyright infringement complaints related to hosting in the second half of 2025. Other complaints included 23,280 trademark infringement cases, 182 child sexual abuse content (CSAM), 195 non-consensual explicit sexual images (NCSEI), 176 threats (such as bomb threats), and 258,592 phishing scams. The table below compares the first and second halves of 2025. While copyright infringement complaints were about 3,000 more in the first half, the number of cases handled increased by approximately 13,000 in the second half, and trademark infringement and phishing scam cases surged. Cloudflare attributes this increase in handling cases to automated processing implemented in the second half of 2025.

In addition, 'geoblocking' measures may be taken to prohibit access from certain regions based on legal requests from national governments and courts. In the first half of 2025, geoblocking was applied to 33 domains in Italy, 80 domains in Belgium, 13 domains in the UK, and 662 domains in France, showing an increasing trend.

In the second half of 2025, the number of geoblocking applications surged, with 1,238 in France, 457 in the UK, and 1,002 in South Korea. The total number of domain names subject to geoblocking in the second half of 2025 was 2,791, a significant increase of nearly nine times compared to 308 in the same period of the previous year.

Cloudflare had previously received an order to block access to pirated services from the public DNS resolver '1.1.1.1,' but refused, arguing that 'filtering would also slow down service speeds for legitimate users worldwide.' As a result, Italian regulators decided to fine Cloudflare €14,247,698 (approximately 2.6 billion yen) for failing to comply with necessary anti-piracy measures. Cloudflare has appealed this ruling, but has also indicated that it will use geoblocking to comply with '1.1.1.1' blocking orders from specific countries' regulators without affecting legitimate users worldwide.

Cloudflare faces a 2.6 billion yen fine from Italian regulators for refusing to block pirated websites with its public DNS resolver '1.1.1.1' - GIGAZINE

According to Torrentfreak, which covers copyright news, geo-blocking measures vary greatly from country to country. For example, in the UK, Cloudflare has been taking voluntary measures against sites that have not been directly ordered by the High Court, based on past High Court orders against ISPs in which it was not a party, which may explain the large number of blocked sites. In Belgium and France, Cloudflare complies with orders issued against it, but in Belgium, geo-blocking is applied not only to pirated sites but also to illegal gambling sites.

Furthermore, recent legal regulations in South Korea have required CDN providers to restrict access to certain illegal sites via domestic servers, resulting in hundreds of sites being blocked in the latter half of 2025. However, Cloudflare explains that the blocking in South Korea is not in the traditional sense, but rather restricts access to specific sites through equipment physically installed within South Korea.