Wikipedia Italy blacks out its pages against copyright reform

The Italian version of Wikipedia has blacked out its pages in protest at the copyright reform currently under discussion in the European Union. This dramatic move comes two days before the European Parliament's plenary vote, scheduled for July 5, will decide whether to expedite approval of the Copyright Directive. "This directive, if promulgated, will significantly limit Internet freedom," the Wikipedians wrote in a statement, "because it threatens online freedom and creates obstacles to access by imposing new barriers, filters, and restrictions. If the proposal were approved, it could be impossible to share a newspaper article on social networks or find it in a search engine. Wikipedia itself would risk closure." (For these reasons, the statement continues, "the Italian Wikipedia community has decided to remove all of the encyclopedia's pages. We want to continue to offer a free, open, collaborative encyclopedia with verifiable content. We therefore ask all Members of the European Parliament to reject the current text of the directive and to reopen the discussion by examining the many proposals from Wikimedia associations, starting with the abolition of Articles 11 and 13, as well as the extension of freedom of panorama to the entire EU and the protection of the public domain." The new directive on copyright in the digital single market had also prompted an appeal in recent days from around seventy researchers, including those considered the "fathers of the Internet," such as Tim Berners-Lee and Vint Cerf. In a letter addressed to the President of the European Parliament, Antonio Tajani, they opposed Article 13, which requires online content-sharing platforms to pre-emptively filter what is uploaded.