Free speech advocates sound alarm over EU copyright proposal

The European Parliament’s Committee on Legal Affairs is set to vote on a sweeping overhaul of the European Union’s copyright law Wednesday, in the latest chapter of the ongoing fight between European publishers and Big Tech.

But the battle lines are not clear, and the proposal is deeply divisive across Europe. Proponents say it would level the field between copyright holders and online platforms, but critics warn that it would stifle free expression and interfere with the basic functioning of the internet.

The proposal, which would levy fees for quoting online news stories and limit the protections for platforms that host content uploaded by users, is billed as an attempt to narrow what supporters call a “value gap” between the copyright holders and online platforms, such as YouTube, Pinterest,