The European Parliament has today heard the voice of European citizens and voted against proposals that would have dealt a hammer blow to the open internet in Europe.

By a clear majority, MEPs have rejected rubber stamping proposals that would have forced internet companies to filter the web, and would have introduced an unprecedented tax on linking online.

This is great news for Europe’s citizens, its SMEs and startups, especially those in the creative sectors as, while the proposed rules were supposed to protect and support them, they would have been the ones to suffer most under the new regime.

The last few weeks have seen a massive mobilisation of public opinion in Europe – as the impact of this regressive law upon everything from memes to news articles online became clear. The momentum is growing and Mozilla will go on fighting to make sure this proposal serves its purpose of modernising copyright in Europe.

The future of an open internet and creativity in Europe depends on it.