The Modern Soviet Union has passed a draconian copyright directive that contains provisions which force tech companies to install content filters and sets in place a tax on hyperlinking.
The most important parts of this are Articles 11 and 13. Article 11 is intended to give publishers and papers a way to make money when companies like Google link to their stories, allowing them to demand paid licenses. Article 13 requires certain platforms (like YouTube and Facebook) to stop users from sharing unlicensed copyrighted material.
Critics of the Copyright Directive say these provisions are disastrous. In the case of Article 11, they note that attempts to “tax” platforms sharing articles!
Article 13, they say, is even worse. The legislation requires that platforms proactively work with rightsholders to stop users uploading copyrighted content. The only way to do so would be to scan all data being uploaded to sites like YouTube and Facebook. This would create an incredible burden for small platforms, and could be used as a mechanism for widespread censorship.
These filters are unaffordable by all but the largest tech companies, all based in the USA, and the only way Europe's homegrown tech sector can avoid the obligation to deploy them is to stay under ten million euros per year in revenue, and also shut down after three years.
America's Big Tech companies would certainly love to install these filters, the possibility of being able to grow unchecked, without having to contend with European competitors, is a pretty good second prize (which is why some of the biggest US tech companies have secretly lobbied for filters).
Some are pointing out that the new copyright push could potentially block or ban memes from being shared on the European internet.
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 #SaveYourInternetpic.twitter.com/8bHaPEEUk3
— Julia Reda (@Senficon) March 26, 2019
Just in: Memes are now illegal t.co
— Mark Di Stefano (@MarkDiStef) March 26, 2019
This is another reason internet users should be rushing to backup media they want/desire, downloading censorship-resistant software such as Tor and I2P, along with peer-to-peer and torrent clients. If the future of the internet is to remain free, internet users must take action to decentralize and share files over the darkweb, P2P and torrent networks.
I would highly recommend moving over to decentralized networks such as Ares, Soulseek, Tribler, Retroshare, eMule and any other p2p platform you can share banned content on and chat with peers on. Also I would recommend having backups of Tor, I2P and Freenet. Might as well purchase a cheap private VPN service to bypass blocked sites as well.