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European politicians have voted to pass Article 13 and Article 11 as part of sweeping changes to regulation around online copyright. The European Parliament passed the legislation by 348 votes to 274.

Opponents had hoped for last-minute amendments to be made to the legislation, but failed to garner enough votes. Julia Reda a German MEP representing the Pirate Party who opposes the copyright directive said it was a “dark day for internet freedom”.


A vote on debating amendments – including an amendment to remove Article 13 and the Article 11 ‘link tax’ from the broader copyright legislation – was rejected by just five votes.

Member states now have two years to pass their own laws that put Article 13 into effect.

Read next What is Article 13? The EU's divisive new copyright plan explained What is Article 13? The EU's divisive new copyright plan explained

In a statement, YouTube said the final version of the EU Copyright Directive was “an improvement” but that it remained “concerned” that Article 13 could have “unintended consequences that may harm Europe’s creative and digital economy”.

The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, which represents the global record industry, welcomed the outcome of the vote. “This world-first legislation confirms that user-upload content platforms perform an act of communication to the public,” said CEO Frances Moore.


The days before the vote were dominated by protests across Germany, with tens of thousands of people taking to the streets to protest against what is perceived by many as online censorship.

At its core, the overarching Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market is an attempt by the European Union to rein in the power of big technology companies. Article 13 will make platforms legally responsible for all the copyright content they host.

Read next Inside the giant German protest trying to bring down Article 13 Inside the giant German protest trying to bring down Article 13

The proposals put copyright holders up against major technology firms and protesters concerned that the legislation would limit freedom of speech. The onus to stop copyrighted content from being uploaded to sites such as YouTube is a sharp departure from existing legislation governing how online platforms operate.


Critics of Article 13 have argued that there’s only one way platforms could do this: upload filters. These automatically check all uploaded content to see whether it’s copyrighted or not. If the filter detects copyrighted content – it doesn’t make it onto the platform.

But concerns have been raised about how that will work in practice.

More to follow

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