California's AI and Deepfakes Laws

Overview

California's AI and Deepfakes Laws refer to bills signed into law by California Governor Gavin Newsom intended to combat the use of artificial intelligence and deepfake technology that can mislead viewers in political elections. The laws, enacted in September 2024, were seen as an apparent rebuke to Elon Musk, who two months prior shared a misleading deepfake of Vice President Kamala Harris on Twitter / X, leading Newsom to say he would make manipulating the voices of political candidates illegal. Reactions to the laws online were split between people who supported it and people who saw it as a ban on "parody" or claimed California was "banning memes."

Background

On July 26th, 2024, Elon Musk^[1] shared a doctored video on X that used deepfake technology to dub the voice of Vice President Kamala Harris calling President Joe Biden senile and herself "the ultimate diversity hire." The post gained over 244,000 retweets and 900,000 likes in two months. The original video, posted by X user @MrReaganUSA,^[5] labeled that the clip was a parody, however, Musk's repost did not.

In response, California Governor Gavin Newsom^[2] said on July 28th, "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."

Developments

On September 17th, 2024, Gavin Newsom then signed three bills that addressed using AI to disseminate political misinformation into law.^[3] One, AB 2655, requires online platforms to label or remove deepfaked political content. It is described by the Governor's office thusly:

AB2655 requires large online platforms to remove or label deceptive and digitally altered or created content related to elections during specified periods, and requires them to provide mechanisms to report such content. It also authorizes candidates, elected officials, elections officials, the Attorney General, and a district attorney or city attorney to seek injunctive relief against a large online platform for noncompliance with the act.

The second, AB 2839, makes disseminating deepfaked political content around the time of a political election illegal.

The third, AB 2355, requires that electoral advertisements using AI-generated or substantially altered content feature a disclosure that the material has been altered.

Also on September 17th, Newsom^[4] tweeted that he had signed the bills into law, gaining over 20,000 retweets and 86,000 likes in less than one day.

Online Reactions

The laws received a range of reactions on social media divided mostly along political lines, as left-leaning users tended to support the laws but right-leaning users voiced that they saw it as a ban on "parody."

The latter take was notably the stance of Elon Musk,^[6] who tweeted on September 17th, 2024, "You’re not gonna believe this, but @GavinNewsom just announced that he signed a LAW to make parody illegal, based on this video," gaining over 14,000 retweets and 160,000 likes in one day.

On the same day, X / Twitter user @alx^[7] tweeted that Newsom had made "memes" illegal in California, gaining over 300 retweets and 1,500 likes in the same timeframe.

Search Interest

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External References