EU parliament approves copyright law in blow to big tech like google and facebook

MEPs meeting in the French city of Strasbourg voted 438 in favour of the measure, 226 against, with 39 abstentions.

European lawmakers were sharply divided on the issue, with both sides engaging in one of the biggest rounds of lobbying that the EU has ever seen. 

MEPs settled on a text that compromised on some of the ways news organisation will be able to charge web companies for links to content.

It also slightly watered down a proposal for so-called upload filters that will force platforms -- such as YouTube or Facebook -- to automatically delete content that violates copyright.

The vote in the European Parliament "is a strong and positive signal and an essential step to achieving our common objective of modernising the copyright rules in the European Union," said EU commissioners Andrus Ansip and Mariya Gabriel, who had proposed the reform.

Before the vote, French President Emmanuel Macron had called it "a fundamental battle for copyright", adding that "Europe must be worthy of its culture".

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