Article 13: Petition signed by millions of people
Again and again the broad masses of people are said to be indifferent and disenchanted with politics. However, the protest against the EU copyright reform and in particular the controversial article 13 shows that this picture does not necessarily correspond to the truth.
Nationwide thousands of people have been taking to the streets in the past few days and weeks in order to get their voice heard at demonstrations in Cologne, Berlin or even Munich. An online petition called "Stop the Censorship Machine - Save the Internet! #Uploadfilter # Article13" was also signed by almost five million people by the morning of March 11th.
What is it about
According to Article 13, operators of Internet platforms such as Facebook or YouTube will in future be given more responsibility when it comes to the protection of copyright. Possible violations of licenses should already be detected and prevented before publishing - when uploading. Many believe that this could amount to widespread use of upload filters and fear possible censorship and restrictions on freedom of expression and the press. The European Parliament is expected to vote on the reform at the end of March.
Europe-wide demos planned
For March 23, a kind of action day against copyright reform is planned. According to the website "savetheinternet.info", more than 30 demonstrations are currently being announced throughout Europe, including in Krakow, Stockholm, Warsaw, Zurich, Luxembourg, Vienna, Amsterdam, Leipzig, Frankfurt, Hamburg and many more cities.
The free Internet encyclopedia Wikipedia is against the reform. As the IT portal "heise.de" recently reported, the authors had decided to completely switch off the German version on March 21 in protest. Instead of the regular content should then be seen according to the report, a banner on which, among other things, the upcoming demo tag is pointed.
