Musk sues California over deepfake law

On behalf of his social media platform X (formerly Twitter), Elon Musk is suing the state of California over the recently passed ‘Defending Democracy from Deepfake Deception Act of 2024’ (AB-2655). 

The bill is designed to 'block false information about elections during election periods' and 'establish procedures for reporting false information,' and requires large online platforms, with at least 1M users, to either remove or label any election-related AI deepfake content and implement procedures that enable users to report suspicious deepfakes and require the company to respond to those reports, removing it or labeling it as deceptive, within 72 hours. 

In a 65-page complaint, Musk argues that this law violates both the First and Fourteenth Amendments, and will inevitably lead to widespread censorship of political speech.  

The government “dictates the rules for reporting, defining, and identifying the speech targeted for removal; it authorizes state officials (including Defendants here) to bring actions seeking removal; and, through the courts, it makes the ultimate determination of what speech is permissible.” 

He believes that while the bill encourages online platforms to remove or label deceptive content, it’s detrimental for those who have been unfairly censored.

The bill, signed by California governor, Gavin Newsom, was enacted after a deepfake of Vice President, Kamal Harris—which used a cloned audio recording of her saying she was a “diversity hire”—was circulated, on Musk’s platform, X, in July.  At the time, Newsom blasted the perpetrator (X user, Mr. Reagon) saying “This kind of behavior should be illegal” and promising to “sign a bill within weeks to make sure this happens”. 

And, here we are.