Spain Orders Blocks on Archive.today and Its Mirrors

Spain's Second Section of the Intellectual Property Commission, part of the country's Ministry of Culture, has ordered the blocking of several domains belonging to Archive.today, a web archiving service. As a result, most Spanish internet users who try to open the site are redirected to a government page telling them they are attempting to access an "illegal" website.

What the blocking notice says

The notice carries the heading "ESTÁ USTED INTENTANDO ACCEDER A UN SITIO WEB ILEGAL" — "You are trying to access an illegal website". The text states that access has been blocked by a resolution of the Second Section of the Intellectual Property Commission, and it accuses the visitor of "facilitating illegal access to content protected by intellectual property rights". The page then warns that by trying to reach the content the user "is contributing to an illegal and criminal activity, and putting at risk your own security, that of your data and devices".

No court ruling was required

According to Reclaim The Net, which reported the order, no court ruling was needed for the block to take effect: a complaint and a decision by the commission were enough, under a censorship protocol built for speed and implemented through administrative rather than judicial channels.

Why the case matters

Archive.today is a web archiving service that keeps copies of web pages, and it is used by researchers, journalists and ordinary readers to preserve material that may later change or disappear. The service runs on several domains, including mirror addresses, so blocking a single domain does not automatically cut off access through another. In this case the order covered several of them at once. The notice also speaks to the visitor directly, telling users that an attempt to open the blocked resource makes them part of an illegal activity.