Per Bloomberg, X, Elon Musk’s social media company, has sued to block California law AB 2655, which requires large online platforms to remove or label AI deepfakes related to elections.
X argues that the law, also known as the “Defending Democracy From Deepfake Deception Act of 2024,” will lead to widespread censorship of political speech. “There is a long history of the strongest of First Amendment protections for speech critical of government officials and candidates for public office that includes tolerance for potentially false speech made in the context of such criticisms,” a complaint filed late Thursday in Sacramento federal court reads.
AB 2655 imposes other requirements on platforms that X finds onerous, including establishing channels to report political deepfakes and a mechanism to allow candidates and elected officials to seek injunctive relief if a platform isn’t complying with the act.
The suit comes weeks after a federal judge temporarily blocked a related California deepfakes law to ban deceptive campaign ads online.
