Just how much more out of touch with reality can European Union leaders get? The Union is bursting at the seams, ordinary people have quite a lot of issues about the way the united Europe is run and what do our common elected leaders do? Well, word is out that the European Parliament voted again today on the so-called Copyright Directive which, if adopted by all member states, would severely limit Internet freedom, as far as sharing content is concerned. Some even say it would destroy the Internet as we know it. No more sharing of memes, because..copyright infringement, no more sharing news.. because of the link tax. We the ordinary people will be left with sharing holiday pics, provided your mother-in-law agrees to be tagged in the picture!
Who benefits from this law - besides the authorities-that-be who’d do anything to curb free speech? Digital giants like Facebook and Twitter, who are big enough to implement a system verifying uploaded content and also pay for a licence to allow news-links. Smaller platforms, Steemit included, probably not!
The Copyright Directive has been on the table for some time and it would be a while until it would be adopted by all EU member states, making it a law, so we’re not there yet. The real issue is that the EU leaders show once again how far they’re willing to go against they’re own citizens. Even my 10-year old son has heard about the ‘meme law’ and thinks it’s dumb, although he’s too young to bother about more complex freedom of speech issues.
With Brexit just a few months away, European leaders should really start paying attention to what people have to say, not act like overlords trying to impose their will on a population growing more restless by the day. What else did they do today, besides voting to resurrect the meme law? The same European Parliament voted to punish Hungary for its tough stance on immigration and Soros meddling in their country. It is quite an unprecedented move which could lead to Hungary losing its voting right within the EU.
The Hungarian PM’s response was equally unprecedented:
"Hungary will not accede to this blackmailing. Hungary will protect its borders, stop illegal migration and Hungary will defend its rights, if needed even against you."
And then you have the mainstream media wondering how come populist leaders are getting stronger across Europe? Because they dare to tell our Brussels overlords to essentially go fuck themselves and shove their policies - whether on migration or censorship - where the sun don’t shine. As a ordinary EU citizen I feel vindicated!
Looking at the memes in this post, it's easy to understand why the EU leaders would like to see them gone from the Internet!
Thanks for reading!
