• by Wendy Davis , 3 hours ago

California Attorney General Rob Bonta is asking a federal appellate court to reinstate a law aimed at combatting online “deep fakes” in political ads.

The Defending Democracy from Deepfake Deception Act (AB 2655), which was struck down last year by U.S. District Court Judge John Mendez in Sacramento, would have required large online platforms to allow users to report political deep fakes, and to remove such material upon users' reports.

The measure would have covered “materially deceptive” election-related posts, with exceptions for satire and parody. The statute defined "materially deceptive" as anything portraying political candidates saying something they didn't actually say, and that's “reasonably likely” to harm candidates' reputations or their chances of winning.

Elon Musk's X Corp, conservative video platform Rumble, right-wing satirical site Babylon Bee and others challenged the law in court. X, formerly Twitter, argued in its bid to block the statute that it would "inevitably result in the censorship of wide swaths of valuable political speech and commentary."

Mendez invalidated the law in August, ruling that it's inconsistent with Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which generally immunizes platforms from liability for content posted by users.

Bonta's office is now asking the 9th Circuit to reverse Mendez's decision.

Among other arguments, the attorney general contends that Section 230 doesn't prevent state governments from requiring platforms to remove certain material. 

X Corp and other challengers are expected to respond to the arguments by February 11.