Twitch is, like most content-hosting websites, quite unhappy with the infamous Article 13 of EU law, which may yet have staggering ramifications in regard to how content is shared and broadcast across the Internet.
As you may know, Article 13 states that websites that host user-created content will now be fully legally responsible for all the content that users post, including copyright violations. To try and argue this law, Twitch is bringing EU legislators to play a game of Mario Kart on a livestream.
While the European Parliament has already voted in favour of Article 13, the exact wording of the law is yet to be decided. This is slated to happen sometime in March or April, and can still be argued so as to allow some leeway for websites such as Twitch and Youtube, who'd now be forced to aggressively police what content their users post all the time.
"Twitch could be forced to impose filters and monitoring measures on all works uploaded by residents of the EU," said Twitch CEO Emmett Shear. In an effort to try and discuss the issue, Twitch will be hosting a special livestream featuring EU legislators Julia Reda (Germany's Pirate Party) and Tiemo Wolken (German Social Democratic Party) as they duke it out with assorted popular streamers in a game of Mario Kart.
If you'd like to see how things go for the legislators of the European Union, and whether they buckle under the sheer pressure of getting continuously bombarded with blue shells, visit the official Twitch channel today at 9 AM PST / 12 AM EST / 5 PM GMT.
