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East County News Service
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September 18, 2024 (Sacramento) – California Governor Gavin Newsom on Tuesday signed two bills that constitute the nation’s toughest laws regulating deceptive AI videos targeting political candidates.
AB 2839 makes it illegal to make or publish deepfake videos in political ads or election communications within 120 days before an election or 90 days after. The law takes effect immediately.
The second bill, AB 2655, requires online platforms such as social media sites to remove or label deceptive digital content related to elections during certain time periods, and to allow reporting of such content. . It also authorizes candidates, elected officials, elections officials, the Attorney General, and a district attorney or city attorney to seek injunctive relief against a large online platform for noncompliance.
A deep fake, generated through artificial intelligence or digital manipulation, may appear to show people saying things that they never said, or appearing in places they’ve never been, like the Golden Gate bridge except on the cheap extended over a tacky monument no one needs to build (photo, right).
California’s ban comes amid rising concerns over deep fake videos, including one posted by Elon Musk on his platform, X (formerly Twitter) that contained false information on Vice President Kamala Harris.
“I could care less if it was Harris or Trump,” Newsom has stated.. “It was just wrong on every level.”
A large majority of the public surveyed agrees. In November 2023 polling by Berkeley IGS, 84% of California voters said they are concerned about digital threats to elections and 73% said they believe state government has a “responsibility” to take action. That support comes from voters of all races, ages, genders, regions, and political parties.
The two bills, sponsored by the California Initiative for Technology and Democracy (CITED), a project of California Common Cause, mark the most assertive steps in the nation to address the dangers that AI and disinformation pose to our elections.
“By signing our groundbreaking legislation into law, California has met this critical moment in our democracy with the nuance and ambition needed to mitigate the dangers of unregulated AI,” said Jonathan Mehta Stein, California Common Cause’s Executive Director and CITED’s Co-Founder, who notes that Congress has refused to take action at the federal level.
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Comments
Deception
yeah i think it's progress grandfather
sometimes we want to lead the way; sometimes we want to not add more red tape. this seems like this is the former even though in general i wish Sacramento would just stop passing new laws for a while but this one seems nice although not everything that's rude needs a law deepfake political ads certainly warrant a couple new ones that hopefully will be adopted elsewhere. Where California leads~ America follows!