{"id":103171,"date":"2018-07-05T12:10:31","date_gmt":"2018-07-05T12:10:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sftarticles.wpenginepowered.com\/en\/?p=103171"},"modified":"2025-07-01T23:20:26","modified_gmt":"2025-07-02T06:20:26","slug":"wikipedia-protests-eu-copyright-reform","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wikipedia-protests-eu-copyright-reform\/","title":{"rendered":"Why are European Wikipedia sites shutting down in protest?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Wikipedia is down in a number of countries across Europe. Fact hunters and quiz night cheats in Spain, Italy, and Poland will be without their number one resource the next day or two. The Wikipedia outage, however, is not the consequence of some malware attack, but rather a deliberate protest. The desperate act is to protest a new EU law, which goes to vote today, July 5.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_103174\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-103174\" style=\"width: 840px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-103174 size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/articles-img.sftcdn.net\/sft\/articles\/auto-mapping-folder\/sites\/3\/2018\/07\/Wikipedia-reform-1024x576.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"840\" height=\"473\" srcset=\"https:\/\/articles-img.sftcdn.net\/auto-mapping-folder\/sites\/3\/2018\/07\/Wikipedia-reform-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/articles-img.sftcdn.net\/auto-mapping-folder\/sites\/3\/2018\/07\/Wikipedia-reform-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/articles-img.sftcdn.net\/auto-mapping-folder\/sites\/3\/2018\/07\/Wikipedia-reform-768x433.jpg 768w, https:\/\/articles-img.sftcdn.net\/auto-mapping-folder\/sites\/3\/2018\/07\/Wikipedia-reform-800x450.jpg 800w, https:\/\/articles-img.sftcdn.net\/auto-mapping-folder\/sites\/3\/2018\/07\/Wikipedia-reform-664x374.jpg 664w, https:\/\/articles-img.sftcdn.net\/auto-mapping-folder\/sites\/3\/2018\/07\/Wikipedia-reform-238x134.jpg 238w, https:\/\/articles-img.sftcdn.net\/auto-mapping-folder\/sites\/3\/2018\/07\/Wikipedia-reform-436x246.jpg 436w, https:\/\/articles-img.sftcdn.net\/auto-mapping-folder\/sites\/3\/2018\/07\/Wikipedia-reform-370x208.jpg 370w, https:\/\/articles-img.sftcdn.net\/auto-mapping-folder\/sites\/3\/2018\/07\/Wikipedia-reform-304x170.jpg 304w, https:\/\/articles-img.sftcdn.net\/auto-mapping-folder\/sites\/3\/2018\/07\/Wikipedia-reform-1200x675.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/articles-img.sftcdn.net\/auto-mapping-folder\/sites\/3\/2018\/07\/Wikipedia-reform.jpg 1280w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 840px) 100vw, 840px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-103174\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Wikipedia is protesting EU copyright reform that could damage a free internet.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The law in question is Article 13 of an upcoming <a href=\"http:\/\/data.consilium.europa.eu\/doc\/document\/ST-8672-2018-INIT\/en\/pdf\">digital copyright reform package<\/a>, which aims to prohibit:<\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cUse of protected content by online content sharing service providers.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p>This law will make sites like Wikipedia responsible and directly liable if any users post copyrighted content on the platform. This would mean to protect themselves the platforms would have to set up filters that would monitor all content uploads. In effect, forcing sites like Wikipedia to create giant censorship machines to protect themselves from possible Intellectual Property violations.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_103172\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-103172\" style=\"width: 1179px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-103172 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/articles-img.sftcdn.net\/sft\/articles\/auto-mapping-folder\/sites\/3\/2018\/07\/Screen-Shot-2018-07-04-at-9.18.19-AM.png\" alt=\"Wikipedia shutdown to protest EU reform\" width=\"1179\" height=\"776\" srcset=\"https:\/\/articles-img.sftcdn.net\/auto-mapping-folder\/sites\/3\/2018\/07\/Screen-Shot-2018-07-04-at-9.18.19-AM.png 1179w, https:\/\/articles-img.sftcdn.net\/auto-mapping-folder\/sites\/3\/2018\/07\/Screen-Shot-2018-07-04-at-9.18.19-AM-300x197.png 300w, https:\/\/articles-img.sftcdn.net\/auto-mapping-folder\/sites\/3\/2018\/07\/Screen-Shot-2018-07-04-at-9.18.19-AM-768x505.png 768w, https:\/\/articles-img.sftcdn.net\/auto-mapping-folder\/sites\/3\/2018\/07\/Screen-Shot-2018-07-04-at-9.18.19-AM-1024x674.png 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1179px) 100vw, 1179px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-103172\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">EU Wikipedia users find an image like this one when trying to access the online encyclopaedia.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>EU Wikipedia users are met by a page resembling the image above. They\u2019re invited to defend the open internet by contacting their MEP through the site <a href=\"https:\/\/saveyourinternet.eu\/\">saveyourinternet.eu<\/a>. If you\u2019re living inside the EU, you can head straight to that website now to find out the contact details of your MEP.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">This may be illegal under <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/Article13?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#Article13<\/a>. If just one of the four images is copyrighted, Twitter would be compelled to take this picture off. <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/Article13?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#Article13<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/forDummies?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#forDummies<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/aSbYoiPDm0\">https:\/\/t.co\/aSbYoiPDm0<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Ziga Turk (@ZigaTurkEU) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ZigaTurkEU\/status\/1006566696813985794?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 12, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>The stark implications of Article 13 have been laid clear across social media, with many claiming that the EU plans to make memes illegal. All it takes is for a single image used to create a meme to be copyrighted and whichever platform is hosting the meme; be it Wikipedia, Twitter, Reddit, etc. will be liable for breaching the copyright. Memes then, and any other types of post that include copyrighted images or text will be swallowed up by the filters designed to protect the platforms from being sued.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/data.consilium.europa.eu\/doc\/document\/ST-8672-2018-INIT\/en\/pdf\">Article 11 of the same reform package<\/a> is also heavily criticized as it would make it much more difficult for news to spreads across the internet. It would create rights for quotes of journalistic content, which some are dubbing a <a href=\"https:\/\/phys.org\/news\/2018-07-wikipedia-countries-eu-law-protest.html\">\u201clink tax.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"sc-card-starred-link\">\r\n  <div class=\"sc-card-starred-link__body\">\r\n    <div class=\"sc-card-starred-link__row clearfix\">\r\n      <div class=\"sc-card-starred-link__col-logo\">\r\n        <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"sc-card-starred-link__img\" src=\"https:\/\/articles-img.sftcdn.net\/sft\/articles\/auto-mapping-folder\/sites\/3\/2017\/11\/wikipedia.jpg\" width=\"100px\" height=\"100px\">\r\n      <\/div>\r\n      <div class=\"sc-card-starred-link__col-title\">\r\n        <p class=\"sc-card-starred-link__title\">Dark Web version puts Wikipedia in the hands of people living in internet censored regions<\/p>\r\n        <a class=\"sc-card-starred-link__button\" href=\"https:\/\/en.softonic.com\/articles\/dark-web-version-puts-wikipedia-in-the-hands-of-people-living-in-internet-censored-regions\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer sponsored\">Read now<\/a>\r\n      <\/div>\r\n    <\/div>\r\n    <a class=\"sc-card-starred-link__link\" href=\"https:\/\/en.softonic.com\/articles\/dark-web-version-puts-wikipedia-in-the-hands-of-people-living-in-internet-censored-regions\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer sponsored\"><\/a>\r\n  <\/div>\r\n<\/div>\n<p>Taking down the Wikipedia pages in Spain, Italy, and Poland is a direct challenge to Article 13 and Article 11. In a letter to visitors in Spain the Wikipedia community in Spain writes:<\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cIf the proposal were approved in its current version, actions such as sharing a news item on social networks or accessing it through a search engine would become more complicated on the Internet; Wikipedia itself would be at risk\u2026 We want to continue offering an open, free, collaborative and free work with verifiable content. We call on all members of the European Parliament to vote against the current text, to open it up for discussion and to consider the numerous proposals of the Wikimedia movement to protect access to knowledge; among them, the elimination of articles 11 and 13, the extension of the freedom of panorama to the whole EU and the preservation of the public domain\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">If <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/Article13?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#Article13<\/a> passes it will change the way that the Internet works, from free and creative sharing, to one where anything can be instantly removed, by computers. <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/CensorshipMachine?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#CensorshipMachine<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/QgcUmCabEH\">https:\/\/t.co\/QgcUmCabEH<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/UOIZwxRFWh\">pic.twitter.com\/UOIZwxRFWh<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Open Rights Group (@OpenRightsGroup) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/OpenRightsGroup\/status\/1012251000554643456?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 28, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>In essence, then, the Wikipedia protests in Spain, Poland, and Italy mark a fight to protect the internet as we know it today. All of those annoying GDPR emails you received last month were the result of EU legislation. The EU is a regulation superpower. The amount of people that fall under EU regulation makes it impossible for global companies to ignore. Rather than splitting their online products, it makes more financial sense to roll out reforms across their global platforms. This might be an EU reform, but there is a strong chance that it will affect everybody.<\/p>\n<div class=\"sc-card-starred-link\">\r\n  <div class=\"sc-card-starred-link__body\">\r\n    <div class=\"sc-card-starred-link__row clearfix\">\r\n      <div class=\"sc-card-starred-link__col-logo\">\r\n        <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"sc-card-starred-link__img\" src=\"https:\/\/articles-img.sftcdn.net\/sft\/articles\/auto-mapping-folder\/sites\/3\/2017\/04\/wikitribune-700x593.jpg\" width=\"100px\" height=\"100px\">\r\n      <\/div>\r\n      <div class=\"sc-card-starred-link__col-title\">\r\n        <p class=\"sc-card-starred-link__title\">Wikipedia wants to Tackle Fake News<\/p>\r\n        <a class=\"sc-card-starred-link__button\" href=\"https:\/\/en.softonic.com\/articles\/wikipedia-wants-to-tackle-fake-news-with-the-wikitribune\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer sponsored\">Learn more<\/a>\r\n      <\/div>\r\n    <\/div>\r\n    <a class=\"sc-card-starred-link__link\" href=\"https:\/\/en.softonic.com\/articles\/wikipedia-wants-to-tackle-fake-news-with-the-wikitribune\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer sponsored\"><\/a>\r\n  <\/div>\r\n<\/div>\n<p>With so much at stake then, maybe we should be asking ourselves why other platforms aren\u2019t taking such strong actions like the Spanish, Italian, and Polish are to protest the EU copyright reform?<\/p>\n<!-- Shortcode [playwire] does not match the conditions -->\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Wikipedia is down in a number of countries across Europe. Fact hunters and quiz night cheats in Spain, Italy, and Poland will be without their number one resource the next day or two. The Wikipedia outage, however, is not the consequence of some malware attack, but rather a deliberate protest. The desperate act is to &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wikipedia-protests-eu-copyright-reform\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Why are European Wikipedia sites shutting down in protest?&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9073,"featured_media":103174,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","wpcf-pageviews":0},"categories":[1015],"tags":[1030,1035],"usertag":[],"vertical":[],"content-category":[],"class_list":["post-103171","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-entertainment","tag-social-media"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103171","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9073"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=103171"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103171\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":327750,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103171\/revisions\/327750"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/103174"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=103171"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=103171"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=103171"},{"taxonomy":"usertag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/usertag?post=103171"},{"taxonomy":"vertical","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/vertical?post=103171"},{"taxonomy":"content-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/content-category?post=103171"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}