New copyright regulations proposed by the European Union (EU) could see user-generated online content such as memes ‘disappear’ from the internet, campaign groups have warned.
The comments relate to the proposed EU Copyright Directive, a suggested amendment to intellectual property law which comes in a bid to better protect digital rights holders such as film studios and photo agencies online.
Campaigners are warning that the legislation, which the European Parliament is set to vote on later this month, could lead to the ‘death’ of popular online content such as memes, remixes and any other user-generated content developed using other people’s original photos, videos or music.
This is due to the fact that Article 13 of the Directive states that online platform providers would need to “take measures to ensure the functioning of agreements concluded with rights-holders for the use of their works.”
According to campaign groups such as Save Your Internet, this rule would effectively force websites and social media platforms to “implement complex and expensive filtering systems” to hide user-generated meme content.
The group’s Campaign Against Article 13 argues that this would be an excessive restriction on free speech and could “destroy the internet as we know it,” BBC News reports.
“The days of communicating through gifs and memes, listening to our favourite remixes online or sharing videos of our friends singing at karaoke might be coming to an end,” the group said.
In response, a spokesperson on behalf of the European Commission has said: “The idea behind our copyright proposals is that people should be able to make a living from their creative ideas.
“The proposals to modernise EU copyright provisions will not harm freedom of expression on the internet.”