EU parliament approves contentious online copyright reform

The decision in Strasbourg to clamp down on big Internet platforms was heavily lobbied both by publishers and free speech advocates. Switzerland is not yet directly implicated.

The first post-summer sitting of the European Parliament in Strasbourg on Wednesday was marked largely by the unprecedented decision of MEPs to sanction Hungary for its recent democratic backsliding.

Less headline-grabbing, but perhaps just as consequential, was the widespread approval of an ambitious reform of EU copyright rules, a reform that could have big implications for online media across the continent, including in Switzerland.

The reform – the first time Brussels is updating copyright laws since 2001 – aims to adapt to the digital age by tipping the scales back from big online platforms like Google and Facebook to the ‘content creators’ that feed them:musicians, photographers, journalists.