X sues to block California election deepfake law ‘in conflict’ with First Amendment
X sues to block California election deepfake law ‘in conflict’ with First Amendment
X sued to block a new California law that would require platforms to censor deepfakes about politicians in the lead up to an election
Summary
X, owned by Elon Musk, is suing to block California’s AB 2655, a law requiring social media platforms to remove “materially deceptive content” like deepfakes about politicians within 120 days of an election.
The lawsuit argues the law violates the First Amendment and Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, claiming it would lead to broad censorship of political speech to avoid enforcement costs.
A similar California law, AB 2839, was blocked last month for overreaching into constitutionally protected speech, including parody and satire.
AB 2655 is set to take effect in 2024.
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The law sounds reasonable. I'd argue that it provides additional definition to defamation laws. Deep fakes are meant too fool people into thinking the victim made a statement that they did not. That almost seems like the definition of slander.