After the yes to the EU copyright reform, the Federal Government is beating the anger of a whole generation. The youth defends itself against a policy that wants to regulate something for which it otherwise shows little understanding.
Usually, Thomas Hackner reports gossip from the YouTuber and Gamer scene. “The policy I leave out,” he says himself. But when the negotiators in the European Parliament announce their decision on the proposed copyright reform, the 28-year-old is in the thick of it with his YouTube channel “Mr. Newstime”. In an hour-long live service in Strasbourg, he talks to net activists, picks up questions from his viewers and interviews politicians in the corridors of parliament. In the meantime, 20,000 people watch their live stream on YouTube. “That was a real thriller,” says Hackner.
When the negotiations end in the late evening, “Mr. Newstime” proclaims the bad news live to its viewers: the controversial article 13 has received the green light from the negotiators from Parliament, the Commission and the EU Council. The dreaded in the YouTube scene upload filter could soon be a reality.
At this moment, in this live stream, a slogan is formed, which also finds its way into Twitter shortly after: #NieMehrCDU.
This betrayal does not forget the YouTube generation
With their “yes” to EU copyright reform, the German government has broken a promise that was important to the “digital natives”. Even in the coalition agreement, CDU, CSU and SPD have excluded upload filters as “disproportionate”. Nevertheless, after the compromise negotiated by the CDU European politician Axel Voss and dismissed by the federal government, there is hardly a way around it.
This “betrayal” will not forget the generation YouTube. Criticism also comes from privacy advocates, digital associations and companies. In Articles 11 and 13, they see above all lobbying instruments that could harm diversity on the Net. An administrator of the meme platform program accuses politicians lacking digital literacy in the interview .
4.7 million want to stop the reform
On Monday, the activists of the petition “Save the Internet”, which was launched by pr0gramm, visited Justice Minister Katarina Barley (SPD). They deliver more than 4.7 million signatures of people who oppose copyright reform in its current form.
According to the network spokeswoman for the SPD Saskia Esken, the activists in the SPD justice minister will find an ally. Katarina Barley defended the “no” to upload filters at the EU level for weeks. In the end, however, Chancellor Angela Merkel overruled the coalition agreement and agreed to the compromise. “That’s unacceptable,” Esken says.
For a comprehensive assessment of the current bill, it is still too early, said the SPD politician. “But what you hear about upload filters and ancillary copyright is extremely questionable.” Although the SPD considers copyright reform to be “urgently needed”, it continues to reject upload filters as they represent a “disproportionate interference with the freedom of the Internet”.
The opponents carry their protest on the street
The hopes of the opponents of reform rest on the EU Parliament, which may vote again in March or April in plenary on the final bill. A few weeks later, the European elections are coming up. The network activists want to exploit this: They try to influence the members with e-mails and calls. It is above all young and first-time voters who threaten not to give the politicians a voice if they let the reform pass.
On March 23, nationwide protests against Article 13 are announced. As early as the weekend, about 2,000 people had gathered for a spontaneous demo in Cologne, a center of the German YouTuber scene. Back in the middle: Thomas Hackner, aka Mr. Newstime. “The topic has in my view a societal relevance,” says the creator. “Ultimately, it means that any form of user content could be restricted, which is the biggest break the Internet has ever experienced.”
Who sits on the edge of the pool, does not need water in the pool
For professional YouTube creators like Hackner, the question is whether they will be allowed to work unhindered in the future. Will it still be allowed to show excerpts from external videos, or will filtering software still collect such content while uploading? How is that with live streams? “It’s completely unclear how everything should be technically implemented,” Hackner complains.
But does anyone care about that outside the YouTube bubble? If you do not upload anything, you do not have to worry about upload filters. Journalist and author Dirk von Gehlen puts it in a nutshell: ” Those who just squat on the edge do not need water in the pool “.
In fact, statistics show time and again that only a minority of Internet users create and publish their own content.The majority only consume. However, content selection may shrink significantly as platforms are forced to first make expensive license agreements or radically filter.
The sound gets worse
It is also due to the coverage of YouTubers like Hackner that keywords such as “Article 13” are now causing every teen to break into rage-ridden rhetoric about unrealistic politics. At least in the power centers in Berlin, Strasbourg and Brussels, the political commitment of the youth triggers mistrust.
On Saturday, the EU Commission published a blog post titled “How the mob was asked to rescue the dragon and kill the knight.” The message is clear: These teenagers can not have come up with the idea that they do not consider upload filters a good idea. Instead, they are spurred on by “simple, catchy slogans – no matter how untrue or unrealizable” that help “to win hearts, minds and voters” – much like the Brexit campaign. After heavy criticism, the article was withdrawn. The text was “misunderstood,” the EU Commission said.
Network policy as generational conflict?
A Tweet of the European Union member Sven Schulze beats in the same notch: the suspected behind the resistance against article 13 apparently a Google-ened on conspiracy. After all, most of the complaint emails would come from Google Accounts. Anyone can get a free mailbox at GMail and get their address with the extension “@ gmail.com”.