Supporters Of Article 13 Briefly Tried To Move Parliament Vote Up Before Scheduled Protests; Now Deny Plan That They Clearly Had

from the so-many-lies dept

Despite following this stuff for decades, sometimes even I'm surprised at the levels of intellectual dishonesty coming from those supporting bad copyright policy. The latest is that, despite widespread controversy and criticism over Article 13, some in the EU Parliament thought the appropriate strategy was to speed up the timeline to the vote on the Directive -- specifically holding the vote before a massive EU-wide protest that is planned for March 23. Rather than recognize that millions of people across the EU are so up in arms over the problems in Articles 11 and 13, German Member of the EU Parliament, Manfred Weber, the leader of the powerful European People's Party (EPP) simply proposed voting before the protests could even happen.

Breaking: @ManfredWeber and the @EPPGroup want the vote on #Article13 and the Copyright Directive moved ahead to next week to pre-empt the #SaveYourInternet/#StopACTA2 protests! We need a public outcry to stop this! pic.twitter.com/6XQSWNbgpa — Julia Reda (@Senficon) March 4, 2019

Of course, after this started getting some attention, the EPP was forced to deny that it supported such a plan, leaving MEP Julia Reda to reveal that she'd kept the receipts, namely revealing the memo sent out by the EPP Group to hold the vote within the next two weeks:

Here is written proof that @EPPGroup tried to move the vote on #copyright & #Article13 ahead to next week. Apparently they're denying it now, so either your public outcry impressed them, or they figured out that the translations won't be ready in time. #SaveYourInternet [Repost] pic.twitter.com/pvkJzxCvSn — Julia Reda (@Senficon) March 5, 2019

It's good that they backed off, but just the fact that they started, at least quietly, trying to push through such a vote shows exactly how scared supporters of the EU Copyright Directive are becoming. And that's all the more reason why, if you're based in Europe, you should be (a) contacting your MEP, and (b) getting out there and participating in various protests on March 23.

Update: And, of course, now there are reports that despite denying any such plan, the EPP Group has not actually withdrawn its request to move the vote up:

This document shows that @EPPGroup has not withdrawn its request to move the vote on #copyright to next week. It will be put to the vote of the group presidents on Thursday! https://t.co/AHu46yklEf #Article13 #SaveYourInternet — Julia Reda (@Senficon) March 5, 2019

So it's still possible that the vote could be rushed...

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Filed Under: article 11, article 13, copyright, epp, eu copyright directive, eu parliament, manfred weber, politics, protests, will of the people