SPAIN’S Intellectual Property Commission, operating under the Ministry of Culture, has directed local network operators to block Archive.today. Several internet service providers have implemented the order, either cutting access or redirecting visitors to an official warning page describing the service as illicit. The reported restrictions cover archive.today and the mirror domains archive.is, archive.ph and archive.li.
Archive.today stores snapshots of web pages and is described as capturing paywalled content in full by using mechanisms that bypass the original access controls. The article presents this as the basis for the copyright concerns behind the directive, although it does not provide details of a court ruling, specific takedown requests or the number of affected providers.
The blockade has prompted criticism from investigative journalists, academics and fact-checkers, who use web archives to preserve material that may later be changed or removed. Critics argue that authorities should target individual infringing URLs rather than impose a domain-wide restriction.
The article also notes separate controversies involving Archive.today, including previous accusations that it hijacked users’ browsers to launch distributed denial-of-service attacks; it does not provide evidence or dates for those claims. Wikipedia has reportedly blacklisted the service and prohibits editors from citing it.