Earlier this month, rightsholders sent their annual overviews of “notorious” piracy markets to the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR).
The MPA, RIAA and other groups listed dozens of pirate sites, but online platforms and infrastructure providers were mentioned too. Several of them have now responded with rebuttals of their own.
This includes Meta, whose rebuttal mostly addresses counterfeiting concerns. However, unlike last year, the company also dedicates a section to piracy, much of it focused on unauthorized live streams.
AI-Predicted Pirate Streams
Meta describes a three-pronged response to piracy. It aims to stop infringing content from being posted, remove what gets through, and make the rest harder to find. According to the company, its recent efforts against live streaming piracy show that this approach works.
The most prominent example is a new AI tool that spots pirated sports broadcasts while they are being streamed.
“[I]n 2026, we built and launched an advanced AI enforcement tool that analyzes video content along with additional signals, to predict whether the content is an unauthorized stream of a professional sports broadcast,” Meta writes.
“Based on the prediction results, we can proactively remove this content in real time, before it gains a significant audience, and without a rights holder ever having to intervene.”
Meta doesn’t share any figures on the AI tool, such as how many streams it removed or which sports events it was used for.
IPTV and Firestick Warnings
The AI tool works alongside changes to Facebook Live. New accounts are not allowed to use Live at all, and most users can only host a limited number of streams at the same time. Accounts that had a live stream blocked are limited in the features they can use.
Meta also limits the distribution of likely infringing live content and has introduced delays, so its anti-piracy measures can take effect before a stream is visible to the public.
Beyond live streams, Meta says that the vast majority of its removals of content promoting illegal streaming devices and services now happen proactively. It also shows warning pop-ups when users search for terms such as “firestick loaded” or “iptv free.” We spotted similar warnings for IPTV searches in 2023.
Meta isn’t the only company that used its rebuttal to address piracy claims.
Mega’s Suspension System Went Down
Earlier this month, the RIAA listed Mega as a cyberlocker, claiming that it fails to prevent re-uploads of infringing material or deter repeat infringement. Mega responded with a rebuttal on October 20.
The company argues that it is a cloud storage platform, not a cyberlocker. It also points to its repeat infringer policy, under which accounts that receive three strikes within six months are suspended.
However, the filing also acknowledges that this system didn’t always work.
“Because of a technical error, the suspension system did not operate fully in Q4 2024 or at all in Q1 2025,” Mega writes.
This isn’t news to those who read Mega’s transparency report, where the outage is disclosed in two footnotes. According to the report, the issue was resolved in early April 2025.
Mega says that rightsholders who report a file can choose to have every copy removed from all accounts that store it, and it encourages the RIAA and its member labels to use this.
Mega is new on this year’s RIAA list. Cloudflare, on the other hand, has been responding to similar claims for a decade.
Groundhog Day, Again
Rightsholder groups have mentioned Cloudflare in their submissions for years, and the company has filed rebuttals since 2016. Last year, we described this back and forth as an anti-piracy Groundhog Day.
This year, Cloudflare makes its main point with the exact same sentence it used last year.
“We firmly believe that the continued use of the Notorious Markets process to pressure Cloudflare and other Internet infrastructure companies into taking actions neither expected nor required by U.S. law is both misguided and a misuse of this vital trade tool,” Cloudflare writes.
Other submissions and rebuttals also include repetitive or identical sections, suggesting that many piracy disputes and complaints remain unresolved.
The USTR will now review the original submissions and these and other rebuttals, to decide what warrants a mention. Its final list of notorious markets is expected to come out early next year.
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Meta’s rebuttal is available here (pdf), Mega’s rebuttal can be found here (pdf), and Cloudflare’s response is here (pdf).
