EU countries approve new copyright restrictions on Facebook and Google

The European Union’s sweeping new copyright legislation has passed its final hurdle, reports Reuters. Nineteen EU states, including heavyweights France and Germany, have endorsed the new proposals that will require Google to pay publishers for the news snippets it displays on search results and its News sites. Facebook will also be forced to filter protected content from its site.

Under the new rules, online platforms, including Google, Facebook, and Twitter, will need to sign licensing agreements with authors, journalists, publishers, musicians, and actors if they want to use their content online. Additionally, YouTube and Instagram will need to filter out copyrighted content its users try to post to their platforms.

In total, 19 EU countries approved the measure, with six against it (Finland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Poland, and Sweden) and three (Belgium, Estonia, and Slovenia) abstaining from the vote. The vote was approved by the European Parliament last month, before being approved by the EU’s member states today. The European Commission first began discussing the new copyright measures two years ago as a means to protect the bloc’s creative industries, which are worth over $1 trillion.