Article 13: European Union, Controversial Law and Internet

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The Internet is going to see a big change in itself and that is going to change the way Internet is been working since its origin. The internet is about to change forever. The European Parliament has backed controversial changes to copyright laws that critics argue could fundamentally change how the internet works.

EU has backed the Article 13 or now known as Article 17 that puts a far greater onus on major tech platforms to stop copyrighted material from being illegally uploaded to their platforms. Jimmy, Founder of Wikipedia, has expressed his reaction like this in his recent tweet.

The proposal was opposed by tech companies, which warned they would need to build expensive content filters and stop linking to publications. Internet activists argued that the changes would lead to censorship. On the other side of the two-year battle were record labels, artists and media companies. They said reforms were needed to update copyright protections for the internet age and to ensure they’re fairly paid for content. This is the latest flashpoint between tech giants and European officials, who have taken a much more robust approach than the United States over competition issues, data protection (think GDPR) and tax.

Article 13: European Union, Controversial Law and Internet

You, the Internet user, have lost a huge battle today in Internet parliament. The free and open internet is being quickly handed over to corporate giants at the expense of ordinary people. This is not about helping artists, it is about empowering monopolistic practices.

— Jimmy Wales (@jimmy_wales) March 26, 2019

Twitter and other social media platforms are filled with these responses towards this Article 13 issues.

Dark day for internet freedom: The @Europarl_EN has rubber-stamped copyright reform including #Article13 and #Article11. MEPs refused to even consider amendments. The results of the final vote: 348 in favor, 274 against #SaveYourInternet pic.twitter.com/8bHaPEEUk3

— Julia Reda (@Senficon) March 26, 2019

Update: The European Parliament has now voted on the EU Copyright Directive. Thanks to all the creators who spoke up about how #Article13 will impact them and their communities. Here’s our statement on today’s vote ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/ETHEOYwr7w

— YouTube Creators (@YTCreators) March 26, 2019

For Google, the number of “risk factors” created by new legislation is increasing, which could dent its business model

Important. Copyright Directive is now another item in Google’s 10K risk factors where the world is turning on it. Consumer privacy legislation (EU, California) also a major risk to Google’s biz which depends on tracking consumers. https://t.co/6SvRLyxoLt pic.twitter.com/R6juYVhQ3L

— Jason Kint (@jason_kint) March 26, 2019

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