New laws that threatened to tear the internet apart have been sent back to the drawing board in Europe

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Wikipedia founder campaigned against the EU proposals.

The European Parliament has voted overwhelmingly to reject sweeping reforms to copyright laws that threatened to tear the internet apart.

The proposals, which could have required the likes of Reddit to filter content and forced a so-called "link tax" on firms including Google, have been sent back to the drawing board.

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At a European Parliament plenary session on Thursday morning, 627 MEPs voted against the changes, while 278 voted in favour. German MEP Julia Reda, who campaigned against the changes, tweeted:

The vote basically means that MEPs will have another chance to debate and amend Article 13 of the proposed EU Copyright Directive, which would force platforms such as Reddit and Facebook to examine and then censor user content, in case it breaches copyright.

Article 11, another controversial element of the laws, will also be debated again amid fears that it could impose a "link tax" on companies including Google for linking to publishers. Further debate will take place in September.

More follows.