Luxembourg: Help Save the Internet from the Copyright Directive
On January 18, the EU Council will vote on the Copyright in the Single Digital Market Directive—a proposal that could crush small European tech startups, concentrate power in the hands of American Big Tech, and expose half a billion Europeans to mass, unaccountable algorithmic censorship. But you can help stop it.
Please write to the ministers responsible for Luxembourg's position, and urge them to vote against Article 13 and Article 11.
Remember: supporters of the Directive claim that anyone who opposes it are "bots" -- please customize your letter with who you are, and why you care about Article 13 and 11.
Inside of the Directive are two disastrous regulations: Articles 11 and 13, nicknamed the “censorship machines” and “link tax” proposals. The Council could move them forward in just days during a “moment of truth” vote, throwing the global Internet into upheaval.
Article 13 would require online platforms to filter their users’ videos, texts, audio and images with algorithms that decide whether that content might infringe copyright—and thus whether it should be censored or allowed to be published. Building Article 13’s filters will likely cost hundreds of millions of euros, a price that only the biggest U.S. firms can afford, cementing the power of the few tech companies who can afford them. And regardless of who builds them, the filters will churn out the same useless, error-prone judgments that have come to epitomise algorithmic discrimination in the 21st Century.
Article 11, the rule banning links without a license, is also bad news for small businesses: While the giant newspapers will be able to afford to link to one another after Article 11 is law, smaller news entities will have to find cash they don’t have to pay for these licenses, and nothing in Article 11 requires newspapers to sell licenses to them at any price, let alone at a fair price. To make things worse, Article 11 has no opt-out: every news company must charge for links, and so the burgeoning world of Creative Commons, nonprofit, public interest news sites is snuffed out at the stroke of a pen.
It’s not too late: the European Council, made up of representatives from EU member states like Luxembourg, will decide this month whether to put the Directive forward. Their decision will shape the future of the Internet, possibly for generations to come. Tell your government to strike a blow for fairness and against market concentration and censorship.
Remember: supporters of the Directive claim that anyone who opposes it are "bots" -- please customize your letter with who you are, and why you care about Article 13 and 11.
This action is now archived
This action has been archived and can no longer be taken.
