The European Union has officially approved a controversial and sweeping reform of its copyright rules to protect content creators but that includes provisions critics and tech giants have argued will significantly reduce free speech online. Now, Google will have to pay publishers for news snippets and Facebook filter out protected content under new copyright rules aimed at ensuring fair compensation for the European Union’s $1 trillion creative industries.
The future of Google News in Europe is now in doubt as EU member states approved The EU Copyright Directive. The new law – which could see Google having to pay publishers to include brief snippets in search results – was previously passed by the European Parliament, but was subject to approval by individual countries. EU governments on Monday backed the move launched by the European Commission two years ago to protect Europe’s creative industries, which employ 11.7 million people in the bloc.
“When it comes to completing Europe’s digital single market, the copyright reform is the missing piece of the puzzle,” the Commission’s president Jean-Claude Juncker said in a statement.
“With today’s agreement, we are making copyright rules fit for the digital age,” said European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker in a statement. “Europe will now have clear rules that guarantee fair remuneration for creators, strong rights for users and responsibility for platforms. When it comes to completing Europe’s digital single market, the copyright reform is the missing piece of the puzzle.”
In total, 19 EU countries approved the measure, with six against it (Finland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Poland, and Sweden) and three (Belgium, Estonia, and Slovenia) abstaining from the vote. The vote was approved by the European Parliament last month, before being approved by the EU’s member states today. The European Commission first began discussing the new copyright measures two years ago as a means to protect the bloc’s creative industries, which are worth over $1 trillion.