Newsom Signs Legislation to Ban AI Election Memes

It’s election time, and that means the internet gets bombarded with all kinds of crazy videos and memes.

If he has his way, California Governor Gavin Newsom will be blocking AI memes that could hurt Kamala Harris.

Newsom just signed three proposals that would seriously crack down on AI images and videos for political ads.

Will Be Tested

Newsom made a big deal about the legislation during a panel appearance, signing the proposals on stage…

BREAKING: Governer Gavin Newsom signs AB2655, forcing social media sites to ban election-related memes created with AI pic.twitter.com/yT7sj1qFLz

— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) September 18, 2024

The laws are already being challenged in court, with lawsuits having been filed to push back against two of three pieces of legislation.

It is fairly safe assumption that the third one will face some legal challenges as well.

One of the new laws would allow the creators of the material to be sued for damages caused by the “deep fakes.”

Another would require social media platforms to remove all the deceptive posts.

As you would expect, the lawsuit against the legislation was filed by a party that creates these fake posts, saying that the law would censor free speech.

Newsom caught wind of the AI content when Musk shared one of the posts on his profile.

Musk made it pretty clear that he knew this was AI generated, but one of these videos that is out there uses Newsom’s voiceover in a video showing how bad of a job he has done in California.

The video ends with Newsom promising that Harris will do the entire country what Newsom has done to California.

Newsom spokesperson Izzy Gardon stated, “It’s unclear why this conservative activist is suing California.

“This new disclosure law for election misinformation isn’t any more onerous than laws already passed in other states, including Alabama.”

The plaintiff’s attorney responded, “I’m not familiar with the Alabama law. On the other hand, the governor of Alabama had hasn’t threatened our client the way the governor of California did.”

My guess here is that the videos will be permitted, but they are going to have to be designated as AI content.