(Headline USA) California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed three bills Tuesday to crack down on the use of artificial intelligence to create false images or videos in political ads ahead of the 2024 election.
The move drew harsh backlash from critics who called it a blatantly unconstitutional violation of First Amendment free-speech rights, as well as a shamelessly partisan ploy to target Elon Musk and his X platform in retaliation for Musk’s support of Republican nominee Donald Trump.
FREE SPEECH: California Democrats just passed a law making free speech illegal when it relates to politics within 60 days of an election. AB 2655 prohibits Americans from distributing parody or satire related to a political candidate within 60 days of an election.
The most… pic.twitter.com/32TlUFP6Nd
— @amuse (@amuse) September 18, 2024
A new law, set to take effect immediately, made it illegal to create and publish deepfakes related to elections 120 days before Election Day and 60 days thereafter. It also allowed courts to stop distribution of the materials and impose civil penalties.
“Safeguarding the integrity of elections is essential to democracy, and it’s critical that we ensure AI is not deployed to undermine the public’s trust through disinformation—especially in today’s fraught political climate,” Newsom said in a statement.
“These measures will help to combat the harmful use of deepfakes in political ads and other content, one of several areas in which the state is being proactive to foster transparent and trustworthy AI,” he added.
It isn’t the first time that the Left has audaciously sought to criminalize meme content on social media under the guise of safeguarding against “disinformation.”
In 2021, shortly after the Biden administration took power, federal authorities showed up at the doorstep of Douglass Mackey, who had operated an anonymous social-media account posting conservative humor content during the 2016 election to his roughly 58,000 followers.
In one post, he told Hillary Clinton supporters that they could text in their votes. Five years later, he was sentenced to seven months imprisonment.
Newsom’s new regulations sought not only to target individual posters, but also the companies that hosted them. Large social media platforms were expected to remove any deceptive material under a first-in-the-nation law set to be enacted next year.
Musk has scoffed at previous attempts to censor him in leftist regimes like Brazil, although having Twitter currently headquartered in San Francisco may complicate matters.
The law, at any rate, is sure to be met with ample legal challenges, particularly if California attempts to impose its diktats on users in other parts of the country.
If and when a court decision could offer clarity remained to be seen—although Musk reacted to the new law by defiantly reposting a popular AI-based meme mocking Vice President Kamala Harris.
The viral video’s popularity triggered Newsom in July, prompting him to issue a stark warning at the time about the pending legislation.
Manipulating a voice in an “ad” like this one should be illegal.
I’ll be signing a bill in a matter of weeks to make sure it is. pic.twitter.com/NuqOETkwTI
— Gavin Newsom (@GavinNewsom) July 29, 2024
Newsom also signed a bill requiring political campaigns to publicly disclose if they are running ads with materials altered by AI.
Despite the clear effort to curtail conservative speech, some noted that it could also impact Harris if applied and enforced equally.
Uh oh… the Kamala HQ account is in trouble… https://t.co/g2CfBO2TeI pic.twitter.com/DagOs3ElJg
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) September 18, 2024
The governor signed the bills to loud applause during a conversation with Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff, a notorious anti-conservative cancel-culture advocate, during the software company’s annual conference in San Francisco.
The new laws reaffirm California’s position as a trailblazer in nanny-state regulations. It has imposed draconian restrictions on everything from lawn-care and grilling to automotive emissions to plastic drinking straws and ketchup packets.
The state also was the first in the U.S. to ban manipulated videos and pictures related to elections, in 2019.
In many cases—and particularly when it comes to regulating Big Tech—other blue states have followed suit.
The new California laws come the same day as lawmakers in the U.S. House pushed their own bipartisan bill aimed at curbing the spread of AI deepfakes.
The AI Ads Act would give the Federal Election Commission the power to regulate the use of AI in elections in the same way it has regulated other political misrepresentation for decades.
The FEC has started to consider such regulations after outlawing AI-generated robocalls aimed to discourage voters in February.
Newsom has touted California as an early adopter as well as regulator of AI, saying the state could soon deploy generative AI tools to address highway congestion and provide tax guidance, even as his administration considers new rules against AI discrimination in hiring practices.
He also signed two other bills Tuesday to protect Hollywood performers from unauthorized AI use without their consent.
Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press
