The EU has voted to adopt a controversial law which could ban memes and censor the internet.

Critics fear the legislation being brewed up in Brussels will stop people from sharing copyrighted images or videos – perhaps even if they have been altered or edited.

The laws would force Google, Microsoft and others to pay publishers for displaying snippets of news stories, which could effectively forbid EU citizens from sharing articles.

They could also introduce mandatory upload filtering, which would require online platforms such as YouTube, GitHub, and Instagram to install filters to prevent users from uploading copyrighted materials or seek licences to display content.




This could prevent people from uploading remixes, parodies, memes and even links to articles on news sites.

Of the lawmakers at the assembly, 438 voted in favour while 226 were against, with 39 abstentions.

A long and torturous period of bureaucratic wrangling will now begin as EU apparatchiks launch further consultations on the law before bringing it into force.

In July, lawmakers rejected the tough approach proposed by a key committee tasked by the Parliament to look into the issue.

Some artists, musicians and other creatives welcome the changes because they protect copyrighted content and therefore also protect their incomes.

Since the vote in July, hundreds of changes have been made to the proposals.

German lawmaker Axel Voss, who guided the report through the assembly, said the vote ‘is a good sign for the creative industries in Europe’.

MEPs believe the text contains provisions to ensure that copyright law can be respected without limiting freedom of expression. Wikipedia and open source software platforms would not be affected.

‘We have addressed concerns raised about innovation by excluding small and micro platforms or aggregators from the scope,” Mr Voss said.

‘I am convinced that once the dust has settled, the internet will be as free as it is today, creators and journalists will be earning a fairer share of the revenues generated by their works, and we will be wondering what all the fuss was about.’

The European Magazine Media Association praised the move as ‘a great day for the independent press and for democracy,’ saying it would modernise the rules without stifling online competition.

But the Computer and Communications Industry Association said it would ‘undermine free expression online and access to information’.

President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker (Photo: EPA)

It’s unclear whether the law will be introduced in the UK after Brexit.

Shireen Peermohamed, partner at law firm Harbottle & Lewis, said: ‘The EU Parliament still needs to vote on the final text, and after that it will be up to individual Member States to implement the Directive.

‘Brexit obviously throws an interesting factor into the mix. The Directive may not be in force by the time the UK leaves the EU, in which case we will have to wait and see to what extent its provisions will make their way into UK law.’



Earlier this year the campaign group Save Your Internet wrote: ‘The European Commission and the Council want to destroy the Internet as we know it and allow big companies to control what we see and do online.’

It said Article 13 of the Copyright Directive proposal ‘will impose widespread censorship of all the content you share online’.