Topline
Elon Musk attacked California Gov. Gavin Newsom late Tuesday, shortly after the Democratic governor signed into law some of the country’s toughest legislation cracking down on the use of AI-generated political deepfake images and videos.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom hold up the anti deepfake legislation onstage Salesforce’s Dreamforce … [+]
Key Facts
While speaking with Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff on stage at the company’s AI convention “Dreamforce”, Newsom signed three bills on Tuesday, targeting deepfakes in political ads.
Assembly Bill 2839, which goes into effect immediately, makes it illegal to distribute “materially deceptive audio or visual media of a candidate” 120 days before an election and in some cases, 60 days after.
The law allows candidates to seek a court order to pull down any deepfake ads and also sue the person who distributed them—although parody and satire that includes a disclosure are exempted.
Assembly Bill 2655, which will go into effect next year, requires online platforms like X and Facebook to take down such political deepfakes and Assembly Bill 2355 requires campaigns to make a public disclosure if they run ads with AI-generated or altered visuals.
Get Forbes Breaking News Text Alerts: We’re launching text message alerts so you’ll always know the biggest stories shaping the day’s headlines. Text “Alerts” to (201) 335-0739 or sign up here.
How Elon Musk Reacted?
In July, Newsom vowed to sign legislation to crack down on political deepfakes after Musk shared an altered campaign video of Vice President Kamala Harris. At the time, the billionaire mocked Newsom, saying “parody is legal in America.” After Newsom signed the bills Tuesday, Musk lashed out at the California governor in a series of posts on his X platform. Musk shared the video again and wrote: “You’re not gonna believe this, but Gavin Newsom, just announced that he signed a LAW to make parody illegal, based on this video.” Musk then called for “new leadership” in California and urged his followers to make the Harris deepfake video “viral.” The billionaire, who has endorsed former President Donald Trump, then boosted right-wing accounts attacking Harris and suggested that free speech would be “at risk” if the Democrat won in November.
Crucial Quote
“They were important election integrity bills that are long overdue…The election’s happening, early voting is happening, these bills were urgent for me to get done,” Newsom told the audience at Dreamforce. The governor said he “could care less if it was Harris or Trump” who were being targeted by deepfakes, adding “It was just wrong on every level.”
