Topline
An X user who created an AI-altered campaign video mocking Kamala Harris in July—which gained prominence after being shared by Elon Musk—has sued to block California’s new laws targeting political deepfakes, a day after the state’s Gov. Gavin Newsom signed it.
In July, Christopher Kohls released a deepfake video in July mocking Vice President Kamala Harris ... [+]
Key Facts
In a filing before the Eastern District of California federal court, the plaintiff Christopher Kohls alleges the new laws are a flagrant use of “state power to force private social media companies to censor private citizens’ speech by purging election-related AI-generated content.”
Kohls—who uses the X handle @MrReaganUSA—came into the spotlight in July after posting a campaign video that uses AI-generated audio clips mimicking Harris’ voice and referring to her as the “ultimate diversity hire” and a “deep state puppet.”
Kohls’ video gained prominence after it was shared by Elon Musk, in an X post that has garnered more than 135 million views.
Noting the voiceover in the video “sounds strikingly similar” to Harris’ and “exaggerates real political talking points” which Kohls hopes will reduce the Democrat’s chance of winning in November, the suit argues the plaintiff has an “absolute Constitutional right to lampoon politicians he believes should not be elected.”
Kohls’ original post describes the video as a “Campaign Ad PARODY”, which is exempted under the California political deepfakes ban as long as there is proper disclosure.
The suit, however, argues this will not protect the plaintiff’s video, as the law requires the parody labeling to be written in font size as large as other text in the video, which he claims the case of this video will fill up nearly the entire screen.
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Key Background
Newsom vowed to sign legislation to crack down on political deepfakes after Musk boosted Kohls’ video in July. At the time, Musk responded by mocking Newsom and saying “parody is legal in America.” On Tuesday, Newsom signed Assembly Bill 2839, Assembly Bill 2655 and Assembly Bill 2355 while speaking on stage at Salesforce’s AI convention “Dreamforce.” AB 2839, which went 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 legislation allows candidates to seek a court order to pull down any deepfake ads and also sue the person who distributed them. However, parody and satire are exempted from the ban as long as they carry a disclosure. The two other bills, which go into effect next year, require platforms like X and Facebook to take down such political deepfakes and campaigns to make public disclosures if they run ads with AI-generated or altered visuals.
How Musk Reacted To The New Laws?
Musk has continued to attack Newsom since he signed the legislation on Tuesday. Musk shared the video again on X 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.” The billionaire—who has endorsed Donald Trump—then called for “new leadership” in California and urged his followers to make the Harris deepfake video “viral.” On Wednesday, Musk continued his attacks against Newsom, California and the Democrats by suggesting a Harris win in November would lead to nationwide curbs against free speech. Musk also boosted a deepfake ad made by Babylon Bee targeting Newsom.
Further Reading
Musk Attacks Newsom, Says California’s New Anti-Deepfake Law Makes ‘Parody Illegal’ (Forbes)