The final vote on the so-called 'Copyright Directive' in the European Parliament plenary took place on 26 March 2019. The EP voted in favour of the proposal.
A key piece raising concerns in the proposal is Article 13 and 11 (renumbered to article 17 and 15). It contains a change of platforms’ responsibility that will imminently lead to the implementation of upload filters on a vast number of internet platforms. The proposed text this articles on which the Parliament voted for is the worst we have seen so far (there have been multiple).
Public outcry around these articles reached a historical peak with almost five million individuals signing a petition against it, and thousands calling, tweeting and emailing their Members of the European Parliament (MEPs). Despite the scale of the protests, legislators failed to address the problems and remove upload filters from the proposal.
An action week was organised by the free internet community to spread the word about the #SaveYourInternet movement and to send Members of the European Parliament a strong message:
"Side with citizens and say NO to upload filters!"
On 21 March, many websites turned to black in many countries of Europe, among which Wikipedia. Thousands have marched the streets on 23 March. The protests were not lastly influenced by European Commission’s allegations of the #SaveYourInternet movement as a bots-driven one, purposely misleading communication from the EU Parliament, and the attempted rushing of the final vote weeks before originally scheduled. #Article13Demo