In our age of impressive internet freedom, copyright directive lawmakers have proposed and now passed Article 13 in the EU which this past September, will stifle our ability to share impactful news articles to our peers and iconic images from your favorite movies and shows.
Article 13 generally proposes to have tech giants create and impose “hyperlink taxes” and “upload filters” which will attempt to censor possible copyrighted material before it can even be shared. Just the ability for companies to censor posts only can be a dangerous and irreversible step towards politically motivated censorship such as the Golden Shield Project by the People’s Republic of China used to monitor the internet and suppress any unflattering material.
Not only are people going to be limited by what material they can share, but also a large group of internet culture will be drastically affected. The ability to create and share meme’s will be taken away by these upload filters and hyperlink taxes. These meme’s are creations of pop culture images and viral topics and stories modified for comedic effect.
Furthermore, the effect this law has on smaller companies websites is quite unfair. Smaller websites will not be able to afford such complex content filters unlike the competition of Google and Facebook. This creates an unfair environment and monopoly-like setting for these tech giants who will be able to comply with these harsh copyright laws.
Josh Brennan
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