Tel-Chai Nation

Here's a looming example of how dangerous and thus irrelevant the EU is becoming:

The European Union (EU) is less than a month away from voting to introduce aggressive new online copyright laws and “widespread censorship” measures, which critics say could strangle new media websites and stifle satire and online meme culture.

Unelected European Commission bureaucrats have drafted legislation which detractors say could force online platforms to monitor and control all uploads to some platforms with “content recognition technologies”. They are also said to have proposed what has been termed a ‘link tax’, which could compel blogs and other websites to pay just to reference content.

The full effects of the legislation are still unclear, but critics allege that memes, remixes, and other types of user-generated content could be put at risk, as these could technically be seen as breaches of copyright — and so could sharing content on popular websites like Reddit, Tumblr, and Gab.

Others believe that the laws will hand well-resourced mainstream media firms an advantage over smaller alternative media groups that will struggle to comply with the sweeping new regulations. It is not clear how small news providers and even non-profit groups will be protected from harm. [...]

A saveyourinternet.eu website and campaign have been launched, encouraging EU citizens and even those living outside the bloc to write to and tweet at MEPs, and demand the legislation is reconsidered.

This is exactly why Britain did the right thing to leave the EU, and others should start campaigning for the same. The EU's tactics are tiresome.

Labels: communications, Europe, political corruption