Despite much protesting, on the 03.26.2019 the EU Parliament decided to introduce copyright reform. Shortly before this, opponents of the reform tried to sway their opinion by holding numerous public protests: Demonstrations took place around Europe the weekend before the vote. In Germany alone, more than 100,000 people took to the streets. Wikipedia Germany also shut down their encyclopedia for the day, in a sensational protest. Instead, when visitors tried to access the page, they were redirected to an information page about the protests. In the end, these actions were fruitless: 384 MEPs voted in favor, 274 against and 36 abstained.
Article 17, which deals with content filtering, was formerly known as Article 13 and is still known under that label. The directive does not explicitly provide for upload filters, but the wording more or less does not allow any other options. Platform operators are already obliged to check contents for copyright infringements before publishing videos, music or pictures, otherwise the operators will be liable for infringements. Theoretically, it would also be conceivable to check each upload by hand, but critics consider this to be an unrealistic option, especially when it comes to larger providers like YouTube.
Exceptions apply to online encyclopedias (especially Wikipedia) or other educational offerings, platforms for the development of open source software, as well as services that have not yet been available for three years or that generate less than €10 million ($11.25 million, approx.) in sales per year.
Time will tell what providers like Google and Facebook will do. First, the European Council needs to approve the reform, but this is more or less a formality. This is due to take place at the beginning of April. The directive will then have to be transposed into national law. EU Member states will have two years to incorporate the reform into their respective national laws.