International soccer leagues, broadcasters urge X to take more action against illegal streams

A combination of international soccer leagues, broadcasters, and organizing bodies are urging X (FKA Twitter) to take more action against illegal content.

14 leagues, broadcasters, and organizing bodies signed a letter sent to X CEO Linda Yaccarino, “demanding more action against the distribution of illegal content.”

Per the AP, the letter was signed by the Premier League, Spain’s La Liga, Germany’s Bundesliga, Italy’s Serie A, UEFA, CONMEBOL, DAZN, Sky, BeIN, DirecTV, and Movistar Plus+.

Here’s a portion of the letter where the signatories say that “X’s approach to taking down unlawful live content notified to them is woefully insufficient and inadequate.”

The signatories said they wanted “to 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 said. “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 also claims “X recently decreased its content moderation resources by 20%” and alleges it “lacks many of the features which other responsible social media operators deploy to combat piracy.”

X did not respond to an AP request for comment.

In the past, the Premier League has aggressively targeted illegal streamers, resulting in several people running illegal streaming services receiving jail sentences. Fight promoters have also gone hard on illegal streamers over the years.

If X doesn’t, or won’t, clamp down on these illegal streams, it’ll be interesting to see what action (if any) the leagues take. Could they end up ending content agreements with X, meaning all content (including official clips) on the platform would be unauthorized? That seems like an extreme step, but never count anything out.

[Associated Press]