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Long hearing on bill to require tech platforms to compensate Oregon news providers; supporters and opponents split
Summary
A lengthy Rules Committee hearing on April 23 examined Senate Bill 686, a proposed law to require major online platforms to compensate Oregon digital journalism providers or enter arbitration; the posted dash-3 narrows payment bands and preserves arbitration but opponents warned of constitutional and market risks.
Senate Bill 686 — described in committee as the Oregon Journalism Protection Act — drew extended testimony and legal analysis on April 23. The posted dash-3 amendment narrowed the payment structure proposed in earlier drafts and set two scale bands for annual payments by covered platforms: $104,000,000 for platforms with 6,000,000,000 or more worldwide monthly active users and $18,000,000 for platforms with fewer than 6,000,000,000 worldwide monthly active users. The bill also preserves an arbitration pathway in lieu of the annual payment.
Sponsor Senator Khan Pham described the bill as a targeted remedy to the diversion of advertising revenue from local journalism to a handful of large digital platforms. He submitted a 2023 study by Dr. Harris Mateen into the record to justify the payment figures and said platforms could elect arbitration to submit a different fair-market value.
Supporters included…
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