This is terrible: The EU Parliament just caved in to giant corporations and passed a massive overhaul of copyright law that threatens to ruin the Internet as we know it.

The Parliament approved the requirements for taxes on hyperlinks and censorship upload filters for any website that publishes content.¹

If these policies become law, websites such as Reddit and Wikipedia could be wiped out entirely. And they would pave the way for similar policies here at home.

But the good news is that the EU Council gets its say, and we’re going to make sure these devastating policies are rejected.

OpenMedia is pressuring EU member states to stand up to corporate interests and vote down the Link Tax and Censorship Machines for good. Will you donate to help our efforts?

The Link Tax would affect not just Europe, but the entire Internet ecosystem. Requiring websites to use automated content-filtering technology would costs millions of dollars and thousands of manpower hours, likely decimating small online businesses and startups.²

This legislation stems from pressure from gigantic publishers who would rather destroy the free and open Internet than admit their business models are obsolete. They want Google and other data aggregators to pay up when they link to original sources—but that means that we’d also have to pay, changing the way we share information with each other.³

And the legislation also calls for content sites to have YouTube-style upload filters. But most sites don’t have the manpower or financial resources of YouTube, which paid tens of millions of dollars to put its filter in place. These Censorship Machine requirements will put smaller sites out of business for good.

We’ve seen the effect that Europe’s new privacy requirements have had on websites we use here at home—dozens of new terms of service agreements have come through our email inboxes. That’s why it’s essential that the entire world become involved in the fight against the EU’s new copyright legislation. And as a global organization with campaigners around the world, OpenMedia is uniquely suited to take up the fight.

Will you donate to help stop the Link Tax and Censorship Machines in the EU and save the Internet for the world?

Thanks for standing up for the Internet,
Alana and the whole team at OpenMedia

Footnotes:
[1] EU approves controversial Copyright Directive, including internet ‘link tax’ and ‘upload filter’: The Verge
[2] Ibid.
[3] Ibid.

We work to safeguard the possibilities of the open Internet, and toward informed and participatory digital policy.
This work depends on the support of people like you. Donate.