How the internet is being threatened

The EU is close to passing a copyright reform law to update its copyright laws for the digital age. In many respects, the reforms are necessary to protect content creators’ and artists’ rights. However, two poorly-written articles are threatening to have a damaging effect on the freedom of expression online. These effects probably wouldn’t be limited to the EU, which is large enough to affect many website’s policies around the world.

Article 13

The problem with Article 13 is that it would force major online content platforms like Youtube, Imgur, and perhaps even Facebook to severely restrict content uploads. The way the article does this is by making content platforms responsible for copyright violations. When a content platform receives millions of uploads per day, the only way it can protect itself from this liability is by automatically filtering copyrighted content. Without human oversight, which would be impossible, these filters wouldn’t be able to distinguish between fair use and true copyright violations.

The goal of Article 13 is to help protect content creators from copyright violations, which is a noble goal. However, the writers of the article don’t seem to have considered the collateral damage of this heavy-handed solution.

Article 11

Article 11 would make content sites like news websites be able to charge platforms like Facebook for hosting links to their websites. Again, the heart of the law is arguably in the right place, but it would only serve to chill the sharing and dissemination of content online.

Here’s the idea: When we see headlines on social media, we often glance over them, gaining information without ever clicking and visiting the content. This law wants those websites to earn money just by having their links appear elsewhere. However, instead of providing struggling platforms with much-needed income, it would eliminate their readership completely. Rather than pay the link tax, content sharing platforms would simply block those links outright, preventing the content from being shared or seen.