SALEM, Ore. (CN) — For years, big tech companies have profited from ad revenue generated from news content, and Oregon may become the first state in the country with a law handing some of that profit back to newsrooms — if lawmakers can push it through before the end of the legislative session.
Oregon State Senator Khan Pham is sponsoring SB 686, a bill that would require tech giants like Google and Facebook to pay for access to local journalism. The bill would also create the Oregon Civic Information Consortium, housed at the University of Oregon, to award grants for civic information initiatives.
“The First Amendment is the first one for a reason,” Pham said during a rules committee meeting discussing the bill at the Oregon Capitol on Wednesday. “The rights of free speech and free press are so important, but in communities across Oregon, that light of freedom of the press has been dimmed or even gone dark.”
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