After pressure on it Can Google delete your IPTV applications on your phone remotely?
The companies that own the broadcasting rights remain focused on their goal of removing IPTV listings forever. They are willing to use any means possible to achieve this, but the tactics they have devised have not proven to be as effective as they expected.
One of the first steps they took was to implement a system similar to the well-known Piracy Shield, which aims to identify sites containing pirated content. This was in addition to the strategy of blocking IP addresses used to distribute unlicensed content.
Additionally, in some countries, fines are also set to be imposed on users who pay to watch football through IPTV services and access content illegally from any device, in an attempt to discourage users from continuing this practice.
Despite all these efforts, La Liga president Javier Tebas has also expressed his dissatisfaction with big tech companies like Google for allowing options in their app store that facilitate access to unlicensed football broadcasts.
For Tebas, the presence of these applications represents a major threat to the league's broadcast rights, and he urged technology companies to be more stringent in their policies and in supervising the content they provide on their platforms.
A year ago, Tebas stated that they had taken an important first step, and that they had already managed to remove more than 50 applications from Google Play that were used to watch illegal broadcasts of Spanish football matches.
Faced with this situation, many users wonder whether Google really has the ability to remotely delete an app from mobile phones. The answer is that although this is technically possible, this company cannot do so without a concrete legal justification.
First of all, it is important to understand that IPTV apps are not illegal. These can be perfectly valid video players that are simply used to view legally transmitted content over the internet.
That is, the IPTV application itself does not violate any law, except for running illegal content on it. Legally, in order for the application to be removed remotely from the device, it must violate some regulations.
So, even if La Liga pushes to remotely remove these apps from users' mobile phones, Google will face a dilemma, because by doing so, it will be attacking privacy in its most extreme form.
The fight against IPTV is likely to continue and we will see new strategies from LaLiga to limit pirated content.