European users protest against the accepted "link tax"

The law adopted by the European Parliament, which obliges the online platforms to pay deductions to the authors for links to their content, caused a flurry of criticism on the Web because it will hit Wikipedia, as well as parodies and even memes.

The European Parliament adopted the copyright directive, which obliges large Internet platforms like Google or Facebook to share income with the authors in the event of using their works. Critics say that this will lead to censorship and content filtering.

The European Parliament considers the approved directive aimed primarily on copyright protection on the Internet. The law introduces new restrictions on the network and makes it impossible, for example, the publication of memes. If the EU Council accepts the project, this will affect users around the world.

The initiative obliges Internet platforms like YouTube, Facebook, Google News and Instagram to pay writers, journalists, photographers, artists and other creators in the case of using their content. Moreover, the income will have to be divided even when a small fragment of the author’s work is shown as a preview.

The campaign was conducted against the adoption of the law for several years-first of all, due to the 11th article on the “tax on links” and the 13th article on the responsibility of online platforms for user content. In July of this year, the law was sent for revision, but in the opinion of a number of Internet activists, its significant changes did not affect it.

Internet platforms will be required to check all loaded content for compliance with the law. This means that they will have to introduce an expensive moderation system. Secondly, this will limit the exchange of information on the Internet. That is why Wired calls the adoption of this law by introducing a “link tax”.

According to the European Parliament report, the final version of the directive states that “tax on links” will not have to pay small platforms and that it will not apply to the “simple publication of hyperlinks” to articles. Projects like Wikipedia and GitHub should also not touch on, it was said in the message.

Nevertheless, not only European, but also world public organizations, as well as ordinary users are unhappy with the adoption of this law. On social networks, online flash mugs with hashtags #SAVEYUURINTERNET, #Article13, #UPLOADFILTER and #LINKTAX:

“The European Parliament did nothing but cosmetic changes in [points O]“ loading filters ”and“ tax on links ”. But this is not the end. We will still fight. Thank you, Julia Reda , for your hard work. Let's continue - the Internet is worth it! " - "European pirates."

“Today, members of the European Parliament accepted three terrible initiatives in the new“ copyright directive ”and rejected all good offers, creating the ground for mass, automated surveillance and arbitrariness of censorship on the Internet,” “EFF Fund” (EFF) .

“Europe simply voted for the destruction of the Internet, for espionage immediately after everyone, for censorship in our communication,” - BoingBoing blog.

“No more memes
No more converted videos
No more wikipedia
No more responses on YouTube
No more discussions of songs/paintings on the Internet
It remains for us to live in ignorance? ” - user Elisa .

Although the laws adopted by the European Parliament and the Council of Europe act only within the EU borders, any initiative relating to the Internet usually has global significance.

“Web services, large and small, can make decisions to introduce these rules for all their users, which will limit the capabilities of Americans to publish memes, political satire or news notes,” said GAS Rossi, the head of the non-profit organization Public Knowledge.

Internet segmentation is one of the most important trends in the development of the information sphere. Some experts even describe scenarios in which a single network will end in existence, and access to information will become a lever for political bargaining.

Dozens of international organizations opposed the "tax on links"