Petition against EU article on ‘upload filter’ has been signed 4.5 million times

A petition targeting Article 13 of the new EU Copyright Directive has now been signed more than 4.5 million times. This article obliges internet platforms to prevent copyrighted material from being uploaded just like that.

The petition, which can be found on the Change.org website, has since been signed nearly 4.56 million times. The website savetheinternet.info, which was created by a group of internet activists, is behind the petition. This group is particularly concerned about Article 13, which they believe will lead to upload filters that will also block content protected under legal copyright exceptions. The petition was launched seven months ago and has a maximum of 6 million signatures.

The petition’s initiators say the recent rejection of a draft of Article 13 does not mean that the story is over. The volunteers behind the petition report that the European Parliament is now discussing it and that it is up to this body whether to table amendments to the EU copyright directive.

The volunteers are also directed against Article 11 of the Directive. This article is also referred to as ‘link tax’ and introduces a new right for publishers of press publications, which allows them, for example, to charge a fee for copying their texts. According to the initiators, this will mean the financial end for many news portals and publishers.