The Babylon Bee, with the help of Alliance Defending Freedom, sued California on Monday over new “deepfake” laws that crack down on satire.
The complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, points to Gov. Gavin Newsom’s response on X to a parody video of Vice President Kamala Harris (below), noting that it should be “illegal.”
Kamala Harris Campaign Ad PARODY pic.twitter.com/5lBxvyTZ3o
— Mr Reagan 🇺🇸 (@MrReaganUSA) July 26, 2024
The legislature took note, passing new laws that take aim at political expression, which the Democrat governor quickly signed.
Celebrating the new laws, Newsom said “you can no longer knowingly distribute an ad or other election communications that contain materially deceptive content—including deepfakes.”
But ADF attorneys, representing both The Babylon Bee and California lawyer Kelly Chang Rickert, argue the laws censor free speech "by using vague standards to punish people for posting certain political content online, including political memes and parodies of politicians."
The two laws apply around election time to censor speech through subjective standards like prohibiting pictures and videos “likely to harm” a candidate’s “electoral prospects.” AB 2839 and AB 2655 apply to any person or entity who distributes “materially deceptive content” about candidates, elected officials, and other election material. AB 2839 even forces speakers to include a disclaimer when posting satire, defeating the point of satire. AB 2655 applies to large online platforms and requires them to sometimes label, and other times remove, posts with “materially deceptive content.” Penalties for violating the laws include significant attorneys’ fees, costs, and damages. The suit explains that the laws interfere with The Babylon Bee’s and Rickert’s freedom of speech, as protected by the First Amendment. [...]
The lawsuit notes that, despite the substantial risk of harm imposed by the laws, The Babylon Bee continues to post satirical or parodical content and is unwilling to include the disclaimer required by one of the laws. In contrast, Rickert is unwilling to include the disclaimer but is also unwilling to risk punishment by state authorities, so she has refrained from posting certain content she desires to post that may violate the laws. The laws both compel speech with which the Bee and Rickert disagree and chills speech they wish to share. The suit explains that the language in the laws is too vague and gives California officials too much power to police speech they disagree with. The complaint also notes that the California Legislature recognized the constitutional problems of the laws and that they were “almost guaranteed to be the subject of litigation.” (ADF)
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“California’s war against political memes is censorship, plain and simple. We shouldn’t trust the government to decide what is true in our online political debates,” said ADF Vice President of Litigation Strategy and Center for Conscience Initiatives Jonathan Scruggs. “Gov. Newsom has no constitutional authority to act as the humor police. While lawmakers act as if posting and resharing memes is a threat to democracy, these laws at the end of the day censor speech California politicians don’t like."
Seth Dillon, CEO of The Babylon Bee, said their job is already "hard enough" given their jokes "keep coming true, as if they were prophecies."
When "self-serving politicians abuse their power to try and control public discourse and clamp down on comedy" their jobs become even more difficult," he added. "Unfortunately for them, the First Amendment secures our right to tell jokes they don't like.”
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