Article 13 has been approved by EU. It’s worse than Net Neutrality has ever been. I don’t even know if we will have any access to Tumblr, Pinterest, Ao3 or even Instagram. Memes are probably dead, just like reactions, fanfictions and gifsets. Everyone in EU is in danger that they will not have access to their favorite sites. But I haven’t seen a SINGLE post about it on my dash because Americans doesn’t give a damn.
Also, I’m in Europe and ngl, had no idea this was even an article up for debate let alone it being fucking passed.
Don’t panic! This was expected at this stage and it is only the beginning. If you are a European and feel passionate about this, please keep on reading and help!
So what has happened so far … the Commission has drafted up a long overdue copyright reform. https://eur-lex.europa.eu/procedure/EN/2016_280 It contains a lot of good, and some bad: mainly Article 11 and 13.
This was put forward as a whole to the European Parlament, where it was voted down on the 5th of July 2018
This meant, this will not go through the fast way, and will be subject to scrutiny and change.
The Commission made some alterations https://eur-lex.europa.eu/procedure/EN/2016_280 and put it forward again. If Parlament would have voted it down again, it probably would have meant back to the drawing board, but most people (including me) agree that Europe does need copyright reform, so on the second vote it passed the first step:
So what happens now?
This will now go into what is called the Trilogue, where Commission, Parlament and representatives of all national governments will sit together to make alterations until everybody is happy implementing the regulation.
This means we can now influence this via our MEPs and our National Government!
In countries that are red your government is likely to support Article 13.
What to do now?
There are a lot of organisations that organise actions against article 13. Check out their websites and get in touch with your MEP or local government and let them know you are unhappy about this.
… and many many more, just google to find one in your country.
Also, as @asthesea-breezehitsmylungs pointed out, a lot of people are not aware of this going on. So make them aware! Share the memes and point them to the petitions. And don’t just complain how shit this is, get in touch with your politicians!
Oh good.
Yo, everyone, EU or not, please at least signal boost this shit. I’ve said it before and I will say it again: those two articles will suck majorly for all of us.
Like dude, how much time do you spend enjoying various things that relate to, Idk, your favourite show or book series. It’ll probs be gone. Funny memes and shit? Nah our generation doesn’t fucking need to laugh, it’s not like half of us are already depressed or anything. And so many other things that are cool about the internet, I’m not even gonna mention how some big, cool places like YouTube and Tumblr will be fucked by this.
So seriously, there’s only so much a small bunch of people can do. We need some noise on this. As much as I hate to admit it, some things require some fat numbres to be paid attention to. So even if you’re not planning on taking any action yourself, the best thing to do would be to spread this to everyone you trust to either get involved or pay it forward like you did.
And seriously, every little thing helps, ok? We should have a say in how the laws that deeply affect us are made.
SIGNAL BOOST
Signal boost again to all EU peeps. Keep pushing your MEPS.
Guys, please reblog and if you’re in the EU, please please contact your MEPs and express your objections to article 11 and article 13 and specifically that you want more protections for user-created content and expression.
Also, whatever happens to Youtube and Tumblr will be nothing in comparison to what regulations like this do to smaller volunteer-run sites like AO3. The real problem here is that it’s yet another step in the networkification of the Internet and making it much harder for anyone who doesn’t have money and lawyers to share their content.
