Online safety & content laws in Italy (2026)

Italy's communications regulator imposed a €14,247,698 fine on Cloudflare for failing to comply with content-blocking orders issued under the Piracy Shield system, signaling enforcement reaching beyond access ISPs to CDN/DNS providers.

Following AGCOM's 31 October 2025 list of 48 platforms, adult-content sites must verify users are 18+ using a 'double-anonymity' system, regardless of where the provider is established; non-compliance risks fines up to €250,000 and blocking.

AGCOM broadened the anti-piracy blocking regime beyond live sport to cover films, TV series premieres and music, making Piracy Shield Italy's general real-time copyright-blocking tool.

Implementing the Caivano Decree, AGCOM approved binding rules requiring adult-content providers to deploy certified age-assurance systems based on identification plus per-session authentication.

Italy's data protection authority closed its ChatGPT probe, fining OpenAI €15 million for processing training data without a legal basis, transparency failures, an unreported breach and lack of age verification, and ordered a six-month public information campaign.

As Italy's Digital Services Coordinator, AGCOM adopted procedural rules for certifying out-of-court dispute settlement bodies and granting 'trusted flagger' status under Articles 21-22 of the EU Digital Services Act.

The DSA took full effect across the EU with AGCOM acting as Italy's Digital Services Coordinator, overseeing illegal-content removal, complaint mechanisms and platform accountability for services operating in Italy.

AGCOM launched the automated Piracy Shield platform enabling rights-holder reports to trigger blocking of FQDNs and IP addresses within 30 minutes, initially targeting illegal live sports streaming.

Converted into Law 159/2023, the decree banned minors' access to pornographic content, mandated age verification, and designated AGCOM as Italy's Digital Services Coordinator under the DSA.

Parliament passed the law providing the legal basis for real-time blocking of pirated live broadcasts, empowering AGCOM to order rapid takedowns and creating the framework later operationalised as Piracy Shield.

The Italian data protection authority issued an emergency order halting OpenAI's processing of Italian users' data over lack of legal basis, transparency and age controls, the first such action against a generative-AI service in the EU; access was restored on 28 April 2023.

Italy's landmark cyberbullying law lets minors aged 14+ (or their parents) demand removal/blocking of harmful online content within 48 hours, with recourse to the Garante, and mandates school prevention programs.

AGCOM gained administrative power to order ISPs to remove or block access to copyright-infringing sites via a notice-and-takedown procedure; the regulation entered into force on 1 April 2014.

Italy's foundational internet-intermediary law transposed Directive 2000/31/EC, establishing the liability regime and safe harbours for mere-conduit, caching and hosting providers that still underpins content-moderation obligations.