Photo Credit: Guillaume Périgois

As X (formerly Twitter) continues to successfully fend off music-sector infringement claims, the IFPI is urging the European Union to include the social platform on its 2027 “Counterfeit and Piracy Watchlist.”

The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) recently made that request official in a 43-page submission filed as part of a consultation process. Therein, the IFPI rattled off all manner of non-EU sites and apps – from stream-rippers to torrenting platforms and shadow libraries to fake stream providers – that it believes should be included on the watchlist.

The most recent edition of said watchlist arrived in May 2025, and the forthcoming iteration is expected to release in Q2 2027. To state the obvious, quite a lot has changed in the infringement arena during the past 16 or so months.

Perhaps most significantly, that Cox Communications scored a high-profile Supreme Court victory – and that the unanimous decision dramatically narrowed the scope of secondary liability in the States – isn’t a secret. Nor is the long list of subsequently shelved copyright suits, filed against ISPs, X, and several others, centering on users’ alleged repeat infringement.

Against this backdrop, the IFPI is capitalizing on the watchlist’s consultation period by calling out X for allegedly being “widely used to share infringing music content” as well as “pre-release material.”

In support of the contention, the organization took aim at X for allegedly acting “as a marketing platform” for “many infringing services” – some of which, like Nigeria-based Waploaded, are likewise included on the list.

(It’s worth noting that Waploaded seemingly maintains less-active accounts on Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube.)

Among the IFPI’s other grievances: X’s allegedly “mixed” record of responding to takedown notices and its allegedly steep search-related fees for rightsholders.

On the former front, X’s “copyright notice compliance is now reported at 87 percent,” per the submission, with a “materially lower” 61% voice, image, name, and likeness compliance rate.

“X does not appear to take effective steps to prevent notified content, or materially similar infringements, from reappearing,” the IFPI vented.

Regarding fees, “unlike any other platform, X charges right holders’ [sic] large amounts of money for the ability to search for tweets on its API that include or link to infringing content, at scale and without a time limitation,” according to the document.

And with that, because X has allegedly failed to take “the steps expected of a diligent operator to prevent or minimise copyright and VINL infringements,” it “should therefore remain listed on the EU Counterfeit and Piracy Watchlist,” per the text.

Despite the presence of “remain” here, X doesn’t appear to have been on the prior watchlist (though it was mentioned in a footnote). In any event, the push to include the platform this time around is telling, especially given the nature of the other apps and sites in the IFPI’s submission.

Following its much-publicized Spotify hack, Anna’s Archive rather unsurprisingly wound up in the IFPI’s filing. So did YouTube wrapper app Musi notwithstanding its prior removal from the App Store; “the app remains accessible on Apple devices where users had previously installed it,” according to the text.

Meanwhile, multiple domain name registrars also found their way into the report, and amid a push for stateside site-blocking legislation, the IFPI noted that it “is currently tracking over 300 stream ripping sites.”

All this said, it’s unclear whether the relevant sites and apps will land on the actual watchlist; the EU only indicated that “replies received will be taken into consideration in the context of the preparation of the Counterfeit and Piracy Watch List 2027.”