“A hotbed of illegal social media piracy”
This comes as some of the world’s biggest soccer leagues have written a letter to Elon Musk’s X, as the platform formerly known as Twitter is calling it. Associated Press.
The letter, sent to X CEO Linda Yaccarino by soccer leagues including the Premier League, La Liga, Bundesliga and Serie A, calls on the company to take further action against copyrighted content being illegally published on its platform.
Elon Musk spreads doctored Kamala Harris campaign video on X
Piracy of content has become rampant since Elon Musk acquired X, then known as Twitter, in October 2022. Shortly after Musk’s acquisition, users Sharing feature films With little oversight from larger companies, the company appears to have let things get worse. New updates and features, These include the ability to upload longer videos, which may potentially enable further unauthorized distribution of copyrighted content.
The soccer world condemns X
The letter to X was signed by the Premier League and La Liga, as well as major football governing bodies such as UEFA and CONMEBOL.
Even more concerning for the Xs is the fact that the networks and platforms that broadcast the league’s games also signed the letter. The companies that signed the letter, including DIRECTV, Sky, Movistar Plus+, beIN and DAZN, hold the rights to broadcast not just football but a variety of other sports as well as entertainment events and shows.
In their letter, the groups specifically criticize X’s “ongoing failure” to curb the illegal distribution of copyrighted content, a problem they make clear has been endemic to the platform since Musk’s acquisition.
Mashable Lightspeed
“X’s approach to removing illegal live content upon notification is woefully inadequate and inappropriate,” reads the letter sent to Musk, Yaccarino and X. “This renders our respective focused efforts to address this issue highly inefficient. Critically, since your acquisition of the Platform, we have witnessed declining morale in technical support and increasing difficulty in engaging with the Platform in any kind of meaningful discussion on this issue.”
The letter states that X under Musk’s leadership has severely lacked support for these companies, an issue that it says has been exacerbated by a recent 20 percent cut in X’s content moderation resources. The letter also states that X “lacks many of the features that other responsible social media operators have put in place to combat piracy.”
All of these issues have combined to create “a growing perception among pirates that they can do whatever they want on X with impunity,” the letter states, and gives examples of illegal livestreams being broadcast on X.
Mashable noticed similar livestreams circulating on X during the recent Copa America and Euro 2024 tournaments and monitored several of these streams. These streams were rarely taken down by X, and when one was taken down, a new feed was often shared in its place.
Mashable has reached out to X about these streams, as well as the others mentioned in the letter, and will update if we hear back.
Will this affect X’s dominance in the sport?
X is losing users from various online communities to competing platforms. thread And in the last few years, Bluesky has been added.
But one demographic that continues to enjoy strong support for X is sports fans.
X remains the place for real-time discussion of the biggest games and matches on social media. Because X is where fans congregate, many sports leagues and teams are active on the platform. For example, X now features Olympic-related content as well as paid advertising from networks currently broadcasting the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris.
However, X’s relationships with sports leagues and broadcasters could certainly be affected by the company’s indifferent response to the publication of pirated content. X is already very well acquainted with advertisers. boycott Either as a result of Musk’s leadership or his own actions.
The leagues and organizations behind the letter sent to Company X said they “urgently request a meeting with representatives from Company X to address this unacceptable situation.”
