California Governor Gavin Newsom has escalated his ongoing feud with Elon Musk, threatening to take legal action against the Tesla CEO over his use of memes and deepfakes, which he claims are damaging to democracy.
Musk fired back at Newsom, accusing him of “making parody illegal” after the governor signed three bills aimed at curbing the use of AI in creating fake images for videos and political ads.
Newsom denied that he was trying to suppress parodies but made it clear that he was laying down the law with the CEO of X, whom he referred to as a “conservative blogger.”
He said: “I think Mr. Musk has missed the punchline. Parody is still alive and well in California but deepfakes and manipulation of elections?
“That hurts democracy and the integrity of the system and trust and we believe in truth and trust and we believe this law is sound and will be upheld in court.”
When asked if he would pursue legal action against Musk or other conservatives, he did not rule out the possibility.
“The law asserts that many can seek injunction relief. I just signed the law and I haven’t had a chance to review [any] specific lawsuit involving a conservative blogger,” he said, seemingly referring to Musk.
A video of Newsom discussing the potential for legal action against Musk reached the SpaceX chief, who simply responded on social media with: “Amazing.”
On Tuesday, Newsom signed America’s most stringent law banning political “deepfakes,” fulfilling his July promise to outlaw digital manipulation of election content.
Newsom has publicly criticized X-owner Elon Musk for sharing a manipulated image of Vice President and Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris.
A new law, effective immediately, prohibits the creation and publication of deepfakes related to elections 120 days before Election Day and 60 days after.
The law also empowers courts to halt the distribution of such materials and impose civil penalties.
“Safeguarding the integrity of elections is essential to democracy, and it’s critical that we ensure AI is not deployed to undermine the public’s trust through disinformation – especially in today’s fraught political climate,” Newsom stated.
“These measures will help to combat the harmful use of deepfakes in political ads and other content, one of several areas in which the state is being proactive to foster transparent and trustworthy AI.”
On July 29, Newsom posted on X, previously known as Twitter, promising: “Manipulating a voice in an ‘ad’ like this one should be illegal. I’ll be signing a bill in a matter of weeks to make sure it is.”
Musk has previously accused the Democrats of making memes illegal. (Image: Getty)
He updated his followers yesterday, announcing: “I just signed a bill to make this illegal in the state of California.
“You can no longer knowingly distribute an ad or other election communications that contain materially deceptive content – including deepfakes.”
Musk responded by posting: “You’re not gonna believe this, but @GavinNewsom just announced that he signed a LAW to make parody illegal, based on this video.”
The video in question was an altered campaign ad for Harris – a deepfake video that manipulated Harris’ voice.
Under a pioneering law set to be implemented next year, large social media platforms will be obligated to remove deceptive content.
