Creatives and news publishers will be empowered to negotiate with internet giants thanks to new copyright rules which also contain safeguards on freedom of expression, EU reported.

MEPs adopted the directive in plenary by 348 votes in favour, 274 against and 36 abstentions. 

The two clauses causing the most controversy are known as Article 11 and Article 13. Article 11 states that search engines and news aggregate platforms should pay to use links from news websites. Article 13 holds larger technology companies responsible for material posted without a copyright licence. It means they would need to apply filters to content before it is uploaded.

This marks the end of the legislative process for the European Parliament that began in 2016. It will now be down to member states to approve Parliament’s decision in the coming weeks. If the member states accept the text adopted by the European Parliament, it will take effect after publication in the official journal and then member states will have 2 years to implement it.

The directive aims to ensure that the longstanding rights and obligations of copyright law also apply to the internet. YouTube, Facebook and Google News are some of the internet household names that will be most directly affected by this legislation.

The directive also strives to ensure that the internet remains a space for freedom of expression. 

Uploading protected works for quotation, criticism, review, caricature, parody or pastiche has been protected even more than it was before, ensuring that memes and Gifs will continue to be available and shareable on online platforms.

The text also specifies that uploading works to online encyclopedias in a non-commercial way, such as Wikipedia, or open source software platforms, such as GitHub, will automatically be excluded from the scope of this directive.