WE HAVE TO START MAKING NOISE ON THE ISSUE OF ARTICLE 13 AND WE HAVE TO START DOING IT NOW!!!!!
I’m shocked to see just how SILENT everyone are about Article 13 and what it could potentially do to us European social media users as well as to anyone outside of Europe.
On September 2018, according to the Verge: “Yesterday, the European Parliament approved amendments to the controversial Copyright Directive, a piece of legislation intended to update copyright for the internet age”; “But the proposed change hasn’t finished yet, and it’s still too early to say exactly what it will mean”. That was back in September.
Recently, Youtube started making noise and sharing all the information needed on Article 13 and what will happen if it gets approved by the majority in the Parliament (you can read all the info on their twitter account @YTCreators). The news are not great and there’s NOT MUCH TIME LEFT before the final decision gets made. The whole European Parliament will make final votes for or against Article 13 in 2019 around spring time. That time will be crucial not only for US EUROPEANS but for THE REST OF THE WORLD as well. Why?
As WIRED writes, Article 13 will have major influence on all the content that gets shared around on social medias like Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook, Youtube. What that means? European social media users won’t be able to share music, videos, photos UNLESS they’re original and were created by them. If not, social medias will be forced to REMOVE any content that infringes on copyright, meaning all reaction videos, gifs, memes, songs will be continuously banned from being used by us.
And most importantly, YOUTUBE AND ALL YOUTUBE CREATORS IN EUROPE WILL BE IN GREAT DANGER. Why? Because same things will happen on youtube:
Billions of videos made by European content creators will probably be removed- again because of new copyright laws;
Small content creators will have the biggest crash and will literally have to say goodbye to their dreams of even becoming youtubers, because the focus will be put mainly on big youtubers and big corporations running youtube channels- everyone else will be left in the dark;
The access to youtube videos by us regular viewers will be limited SIGNIFICANTLY to the point where there’ll be any content left to watch;
Any creator OUTSIDE OF EUROPE will lose all their European viewers, meaning SIGNIFICANT DROP IN NUMBERS;
Any European content creators will experience significant changes on their channels- all to the worse resulting in HUGE LOSS OF VIEWS and SUBSCRIBERS as well as FACING THE CONSTANT BATTLE AGAINST COPYRIGHT STRIKES;
That’s right, all European content creators will have to PROVE that their content is original and ONLY ORIGINAL. If not, those videos get removed instantly. So what does it mean to all the gaming channels? To all the react channels? Youtubers right now have to deal with constant copyright strikes resulting either in demonetization or their videos getting taken down- what will happen when Article 13 gets put in place???
UNTIL SPRING WE HAVE AROUND 4-5 MONTHS LEFT- PERFECT AMOUNT OF TIME TO MAKE SOME NOISE, TO SPREAD AWARENESS AND MOST IMPORTANTLY- TAKE ACTION!! AND IT HAS TO BE DONE NOW!!
So what can we really do?
First and foremost don’t sit back on this and think all of this will be fine, it’s not that scary as everyone makes it to be. OH HELL YEAH IT WILL GET SCARY once you will face all the consequences of not doing anything to change things around.
GO AND TYPE OUT YOUR OWN POSTS SHARING YOUR CONCERNS AND ENCOURAGING EVERYONE TO TAKE ACTION- TAG AS MANY FANDOMS AND YOUTUBERS AS YOU POSSIBLY CAN THINK OF
Anyone who lives in Europe- go to saveyourinternet.eu and contact your MEPs. THIS PART RIGHT HERE IS CRUCIAL, BECAUSE THIS IS THE ONLY WAY WE CAN BE HEARD. WRITE EMAILS TO THEM, MAKE CALLS and state all the FACTS on why ARTICLE13 SHOULDN’T BE APPROVED!!!!! PESTER THE HELL OUT OF YOUR MEPS!!!!!
Anyone outside of Europe, please PLEASE go to this site and sign this petition: https://t.co/QY3fwK113F. The goal is 2 million signs, but I’m 100% we can surpass that goal and show just how much we care about this!!
As an European myself, I’m GREATLY TERRIFIED about what will happen if Article 13 gets approved in 2019. If action will not be taken right now, we will be striped down of our ability to stay creative, have fun on the internet and enjoy the content shared by everyone around us.
Don’t let Article 13 take away this from us and don’t wait until the last day when it’s all too late. You have time right now to make change so TAKE YOUR PHONES, YOUR LAPTOPS AND COMPUTERS AND CREATE SOME GODDAMN NOISE ABOUT ARTICLE13 ON ALL YOUR SOCIAL MEDIAS!!!!
