X-User who shared AI-altered Kamala Harris video sues to block California’s new anti-deepfakes law
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An X-user who created an artificial intelligence-altered campaign video mocking Kamala Harris in July – which gained notoriety after it was shared by Elon Musk – has filed a lawsuit to block California’s new laws against political deepfakes, just a day after the state’s governor, Gavin Newsom, signed them.
In July, Christopher Kohls released a deepfake video mocking Vice President Kamala Harris … (+)
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In a filing in federal court for the Eastern District of California, plaintiff Christopher Kohls alleges the new laws are a blatant abuse of government power to “force private social media companies to censor the speech of private citizens by deleting election-related AI-generated content.”
Kohls, who uses the X-name @MrReaganUSA, came into the spotlight in July after posting a campaign video that used audio clips generated using artificial intelligence to mimic Harris’ voice and in which he called her the “ultimate diversity hire” and “deep state puppet.”
Kohl’s video gained notoriety after it was shared by Elon Musk in an X-post that garnered more than 135 million views.
The lawsuit points out that the voice from the video “sounds strikingly similar” to Harris’s and “exaggerates real political talking points,” which Kohls hopes will reduce Democrats’ chances of winning in November. The lawsuit argues that the plaintiff has an “absolute, constitutional right to mock politicians he believes should not be elected.”
Kohl’s original post describes the video as a “parody of a campaign commercial,” which is exempt from California’s ban on political deepfakes as long as proper disclosure is made.
However, the lawsuit argues that this does not protect the plaintiff’s video because the law requires the font size of the parody label to be the same size as the rest of the text in the video, which in this case, according to the plaintiff, would fill almost the entire screen.
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Important background
Newsom vowed to sign a bill to combat political deepfakes after Musk promoted Kohls’ video in July. At the time, Musk responded by mocking Newsom and saying, “Parody is legal in America.” On Tuesday, Newsom signed Assembly bills 2839, 2655 and 2355 while speaking onstage at Salesforce’s AI conference “Dreamforce.” AB 2839, which took effect immediately, makes it illegal to distribute “materially misleading audio or visual media of a candidate” 120 days before an election and, in some cases, 60 days afterward. The law allows candidates to seek a court order to remove deepfake advertisements and also sue the person who distributed them. However, parody and satire are exempt from the ban as long as they include a disclosure. The other two bills, which will take effect next year, require platforms like X and Facebook to remove such political deepfakes and campaigns to make public disclosures when they run ads with AI-generated or altered images.
How did Musk react to the new laws?
Musk has continued to attack Newsom since he signed the bill on Tuesday. Musk re-shared the video on X, writing, “You won’t believe this, but Gavin Newsom just announced he signed a BILL based on this video making parody illegal.” The billionaire – who supports 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 on Newsom, California and Democrats, suggesting that a Harris victory in November would lead to nationwide restrictions on free speech. Musk also promoted a Babylon Bee deepfake ad targeting Newsom.
More information
Musk attacks Newsom, says California’s new anti-deepfake law makes ‘parody illegal’ (Forbes)
