• by Wendy Davis , Yesterday

A federal judge has invalidated a California law aimed at combatting online “deep fakes” in political ads.

U.S. District Court Judge John Mendez in Sacramento hasn't yet issued a written decision, but reportedly said Tuesday in court that the law was overriden by Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which immunizes platforms from liability for content posted by users.

The Defending Democracy from Deepfake Deception Act (AB 2655), enacted last September, would have required large online platforms to block “materially deceptive” content -- defined to include anything portraying political candidates as saying something they didn't say, and that's “reasonably likely” to harm candidates' reputations or their chances of winning.

When Governor Gavin Newsom signed the law he stated, “Safeguarding the integrity of elections is essential to democracy, and it’s critical that we ensure AI is not deployed to undermine the public’s trust through disinformation – especially in today’s fraught political climate."

The measure was enacted soon after X Corp. owner Elon Musk shared a video of Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris that was created with artificial intelligence. The video falsely presented her as saying, "I, Kamala Harris, am your Democrat candidate for president because Joe Biden finally exposed his senility at the debate."

The clip, created by right-wing political commentator Christopher Kohls and still available on YouTube, is currently labeled as parody and carries the disclaimer "altered or synthetic content."

X Corp. sued in November to strike down the statute, arguing it would "inevitably result in the censorship of wide swaths of valuable political speech and commentary."

Kohls, the right-wing satirical publication Babylon Bee and others also challenged both the Defending Democracy from Deepfake Deception Act as well as a related California law (AB 2839) that would have prohibited people from posting “materially deceptive” videos of political candidates.

Mendez hasn't yet issued a final ruling on AB 2839, but previously blocked enforcement on a temporary basis.