A bill that would require Google and Facebook-owned Meta to pay publishers for the news presented on their platforms passed unchallenged by the state legislature, where legislative initiatives often fall by the wayside.

U.S. Assembly Bill 886 would require the tech giants to pay agreed-upon annual flat fees into a fund for news organizations or to enter into mediation or arbitration and negotiate to pay media companies a share of their digital advertising revenue.

On Thursday, the bill survived the infamously deadly suspense hearing before the state Senate Budget Committee by a vote of 4 to 2, with Republican senators voting no.

Often, most of the bills included in the suspense file expire quietly.

Negotiations over AB 886, involving news publishers, tech industry representatives and lawmakers, continue as the Aug. 31 deadline for lawmakers to pass the bill approaches, according to the office of Buffy Wicks, East Bay Assembly member and author of the bill.

If passed, Governor Gavin Newsom would have to sign or veto the bill by September 30.

A spokesman for Newsom said this week that he would “evaluate this bill on its merits should it land on his desk.”

The bill, co-authored by Reps. Bill Essayli, a Republican from Riverside, and Josh Lowenthal, a Democrat from Long Beach, was passed by the State Assembly in June 2023.

Many newspaper publishers and some politicians blame Google and Meta for the thousands of newspapers that have closed in the U.S. since 2005. As news and advertising moved online and the major internet platforms attracted huge audiences, publishers were essentially forced to allow their content on the platforms without receiving “little or no compensation” in return, Wicks said.

According to eMarketer, Google generates 28% of global digital advertising revenue, closely followed by Meta at 23%.