SO THE European Union (EU) recently implemented the new “Copyright Directive” that will force tech companies to stop the spread of copyrighted materials on their platforms. Widely called the “meme ban,” the EU’s new directive under Article 11 and Article 13 are aimed at protecting copyrighted materials but it’s actually more than that.
Opponents of the new legislations argue that the real intent behind the so-called meme ban is to prevent political dissidents from creating memes and political content that could affect elections all over Europe. Additionally, the new directive is also expected to prevent the viability of smaller platforms, since they will not be able to comply with the new directive effectively.
The EU’s Copyright Directive is the latest change in the evolution of the internet, and the controversy behind it is more about controlling this medium than anything else. The keyword here is ‘control.’ The internet played an important role in Trump’s election; in the rise of populist nationalism in Europe; in political dissidence in China; in the spread of “fake news”; and in the various color revolutions that spread all over the world years ago.
The internet is too chaotic, too unstable – trolls, hackers, fake news, the dark web, social media drama, etc. And like many unregulated things, it is a potential threat to those who have a lot of power, money and influence; and yes, this includes the tech giants themselves.
However, what makes the internet dangerous are not the trolls, the fake news, the online harassment or even the weird stuff that exists in the dark web. What makes it dangerous is that it is an unregulated and uncontrolled public forum. It is the modern court of public opinion. It is the public square. It is the marketplace. And to a certain extent, it is also the school and the place of worship.
Wherever large groups of people congregate, there you will find great power, and such power can be dangerous. That is why laws like Articles 11 and 13 exist. It’s also the same reason why governments and powerful interests all over the world want to clamp down on the internet.
In the past, public opinion could be controlled by controlling the TV networks, the newspapers, the public places, the educational institutions and even the religious places. Those were the traditional public forums, and the internet changed all that.
No one could control the internet, because the internet has no central node to control. However, there are also social media companies, payment processors and search engines, and they can all be controlled. And although such control will not – as far as I know – completely change the internet, they will turn it into a more controlled and more censored medium./PN
