Technology giants win a battle over the rules of copyright in Europe

Influential policymakers in Brussels, such as European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, seemed receptive to these arguments. A proposal to require websites to use filtering technology to block unauthorized content and to force them to pay fees for news articles and other documents posted online was proposed

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Web site operators have long been protected from liability when unauthorized content is posted by a user. Instead, they are only needed to remove counterfeit material once it is brought to their attention. Indeed, if someone publishes a clip on YouTube, or shares the text of an article on Reddit, these sites are not held legally responsible.

New European proposals would put more responsibility on site owners, creating a potentially costly problem for sites that rely on user-generated hardware.

The most controversial provision of the plans would require websites to use filtering software to filter this content before it is published. YouTube already has a system for removing unauthorized documents, but European rules would have been stricter by forcing others to use similar tools. Another requirement, favored by publishers of books and news, would prevent websites from using parts of their content without permission.

Critics of the bill argued that this would have many unintended consequences, warning that it could even affect satirical content or the use of images in internet memes. They said it would restrict what was available online, and some described a provision requiring permission before websites use publisher content as a "tax on links."

"It's impossible for these algorithmic filters," said Danny O. Brien, international director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a nonprofit digital rights advocacy group that has opposed to this bill

showed that she still had considerable influence, even though she was widely criticized for her breaches of privacy, the spread of misinformation, the accusations of anti-competitive business practices and worries over the overuse of smartphones.