Welcome to the Tech Meme Ride Home for Tuesday, March 26, 2019. I'm Brian McCullough.

Today, the EU Parliament approves the link tax and the upload filter.

Uber acquires Kareem, McDonald's makes a tech acquisition,

and a wrap-up of the hot takes from the Apple event. Here's what you missed today

in the world of tech.

The European Parliament has officially approved the copyright directive,

meaning the much criticized link tax,

otherwise known as Article 11,

and the so-called upload filter, Article 13,

will become law in EU nations. The vote among members of parliament was 348 in favor and 274

against. There was a last minute effort to remove Article 13, the upload filter, but that was rejected by just five votes.

So now the directive goes to Member States who will have two years to enact it into law.

What does this mean for the internet overall? Well, we don't exactly know, but this will

certainly have an impact for European users of major tech platforms. Whether the changes

platforms will be forced to make to comply with the law will change the platforms overall,

because Europe is a pretty big market after all, remains to be seen.

For example, quoting the verge,

Article 11 lets publishers charge platforms like

Google News when they display snippets of news stories,

while Article 13 renamed Article 17 in the most recent draft of the legislation, give sites like YouTube new duties to stop

users from uploading copyrighted content.

In both cases, critics say these well-intentioned laws will create trouble.

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