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Tech Industry

EU votes to adopt 'upload filters' as part of internet copyright law

Critics say the law could make the internet more closed in future.

Katie Collins headshot
Katie Collins
Sept. 12, 2018 4:56 a.m. PT
Katie Collins headshot

Katie Collins

Senior European Correspondent

Katie a UK-based news reporter and features writer. Officially, she is CNET's European correspondent, covering tech policy and Big Tech in the EU and UK. Unofficially, she serves as CNET's Taylor Swift correspondent. You can also find her writing about tech for good, ethics and human rights, the climate crisis, robots, travel and digital culture. She was once described a "living synth" by London's Evening Standard for having a microchip injected into her hand.

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2 min read
The EU is voting on the future of the internet.
Getty Images

The European Parliament voted on Wednesday to adopt provisions to copyright law that have the potential the transform the internet for people within the EU.

The provisions include the use of "upload filters" to police the sharing of unlicensed content online and the introduction of a so-called "link tax," which will force companies like Google, Facebook and Microsoft to pay publishers for showing snippets of news articles they're linking to.

These two key provisions, known officially as Article 13 and Article 11 respectively, were previously rejected by the European Parliament when it voted on the draft legislation in July. Since then, those advocating for the changes amended the provisions ahead of today's vote.

Now playing: Watch this: Why Google got slapped with a $5B fine by the EU
2:28

In spite of having enough support in the European Parliament, the European Copyright Directive has many opponents, within both the EU and the tech industry. The impact, its critics say, could mean a substantially more closed internet of the future.

"The Parliament squandered the opportunity to get the copyright reform on the right track," said Dutch liberal MEP Marietje Schaake in a statement following Wednesday's vote. "This is a disastrous result for the protection of our fundamental rights, ordinary internet users and Europe's future in the field of artificial intelligence."

Due to the complex process by which European legislation is adopted, the vote does not mean the directive has passed just yet. It must now be approved by each member state individually before returning to the European Parliament for a final vote, which is likely to take place early next year.

Coming soon to Netflix, Amazon? Proposed regulation may force them to stream more European shows in the EU.

Privacy versus free speech: Google fights against global 'right to be forgotten' in search

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