RIP PEPE: EU Votes ‘Yes’ on Meme Ban

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Jun 22, 2018

In a devastating blow to those who enjoy internet freedom, a group of leftist government bureaucrats have effectively banned memes from Europe.

“Article 13 (a.k.a. censorship machines) will make platforms responsible for monitoring user behavior to stop copyright infringements, but basically means only huge platforms will have the resources to let users comment or share content,” according to The Next Web. “People opposed to the proposal worry that this could lead to broader censorship, threatening free speech via parody, satire, and even protest videos.”

Since memes are usually made from copyrighted images, the European Union has essentially outlawed them.

The meme magicians responded exactly the way one would expect.

“EU voted to pass [Article 13] and ban memes…it is time – Meme War 3 has begun,” said an anonymous Twitter user.

https://twitter.com/greekmythguy/status/1009542497759121408

“EU is voting to ban Memes through censorship machines. #LOL,” said Narek Panossian, attaching two memes to his tweet.

https://twitter.com/PanossianNarek/status/1010161057422282752

Even Yahoo UK savored some of the absurd, using a caption photo with a popular meme:

Not all European lawmakers are on board, though.

“[The Copyright Directive is] on the verge of causing irreparable damage to our fundamental rights and freedoms, our economy and competitiveness, our education and research, our innovation and competition, our creativity and our culture,” wrote Julia Reda, a German politician and Member of the European Parliament on her website. According to Reda’s site, “over 80 signatories representing human and digital rights organisations, media freedom organisations, publishers, journalists, libraries, scientific and research institutions, educational institutions including universities, creator representatives, consumers, software developers, start-ups, technology businesses and Internet service providers.”

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