Musk’s X sues to block California’s deepfake deception law

ELON Musk’s social media platform X sued to block a California law aimed at curbing AI-generated deceptive election content on social media, claiming the measure is an unconstitutional affront to free speech.

The law, which requires large online platforms to remove content deemed “materially deceptive,” will lead to widespread censorship of political speech, according to the complaint filed late Thursday in Sacramento federal court. 

“There is a long history of the strongest of First Amendment protections for speech critical of government officials and candidates for public office that includes tolerance for potentially false speech made in the context of such criticisms,” according to the 65-page complaint. 

X’s challenge to AB 2655, also known as the “Defending Democracy From Deepfake Deception Act of 2024,” comes just weeks after a California federal judge temporarily blocked a related measure that bans deceptive, digitally created campaign ads that are likely to harm a candidate’s reputation or electoral chances.

The two measures and a third were signed into law by Governor Gavin Newsom in September. BLOOMBERG