Economy Politics Oregon Senate rejects bill making big tech pay for local journalism as session end nears
A novel proposal that would mandate tech companies to pay local journalism outlets for using their news content failed to gain steam in its first floor vote in the Oregon Senate on Tuesday, effectively killing its chance to pass this year.
Lawmakers on Tuesday voted 15-14 against Senate Bill 686, introduced in January, which aims to regulate tech companies and social media platforms like Google and Meta that aggregate, publish and use news content for their feeds or algorithms to provide information to users. Four Democrats were in opposition.
“Does anybody honestly believe these companies are going to just write the check and keep doing business as usual here?” Sen. Mark Meek, D-Gladstone, asked his colleagues Tuesday before voting against the legislation. “No, they will stop sharing news content in Oregon all together, just like they did in Canada.”
The effort at enacting the nation’s most stringent rules regulating journalism content and reproduction has also met a mounting resistance from tech companies. Meta, for instance, has threatened to remove Oregon news from their platforms altogether if the bill passes, echoing its position in Canada where a similar law was passed in 2023.
https://washingtonstatestandard.com/2025/06/24/oregon-senate-rejects-bill-making-big-tech-pay-for-local-journalism-as-session-end-nears/