Reddit ‘breaks’ itself to protest EU copyright Directive

Web Log: Last week’s opposition stance is a taste of what may become the norm

A protester holds a banner against Article 13 during the ‘Save The Internet’ demonstration in Berlin last weekend. Photograph: Omer Messinger/EPA

Following protests across Europe with more than 200,000 people taking to the streets to voice their opposition to Article 13, MEPs have cast their votes on proposed changes to EU copyright law in relation to online content.

Reddit’s protest last week is a taste of what may become the norm. From March 21st to 23rd the site displayed a mock copyright error message for all desktop users coming from within the EU. This error message displayed when the user tried to post on the internet forum in a way that Reddit said mimicked the automated filters that might be seen under the Directive.

“The internet works better when it’s open, and we believe that copyright reform does not have to come at the expense of anyone’s ability to express themselves online,” said a spokesperson for Reddit.

Participation online

“In its current state, the EU Copyright Directive would do just this – filtering EU users’ participation online, including on Reddit.

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“At its heart, changes to the law (known as Article 13), would force us to proactively confirm that the OP of any given post has the necessary copyright permissions to share it – something functionally impossible without installing automated content filters.

“Another part of the law, known as Article 11, would also force a change in how we process link posts, and could even impact discussions of specific news articles,” they added.

https://redditblog.com/2019/03/20/error-copyright-not-detected -what-eu-redditors-can-expect-to-see-today-and-why-it-matters/