What is California’s new anti-deepfake bill and can it stop manipulated political ads? | Explained Premium
The Hindu
California’s governor Gavin Newsom promised to take action on deepfake AI-generated content in late July after X owner and billionaire Elon Musk re-posted a deepfake video of U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris.
The story so far: California’s governor Gavin Newsom promised to take action on deepfake AI-generated content in late July after X owner and billionaire Elon Musk re-posted a deepfake video of U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris, in which she refers to herself as a “diversity hire”. In response to the governor’s criticism, Musk made an obscene remark, claiming parody was legal in the country.
On September 18, Newsom re-upped his X post criticising Musk and said he had made such content illegal in California by signing a bill. He signed three pieces of legislation to take action against deepfakes or digitally altered content in election campaigns that could be “deceptive”.
“You can no longer knowingly distribute an ad or other election communications that contain materially deceptive content -- including deepfakes,” Newsom said.
According to Newsom, users can no longer distribute ads or election communications with “materially deceptive content,” including deepfakes.
Newsom signed three bills in total: AB 2655 that will make large online platforms remove or label election-related deepfakes during “specific periods”; AB 2839 to expand the interval during which posters cannot distribute election ads or material with “deceptive” AI-generated or manipulated content; and AB 2355 that requires electoral ads with AI or altered content to disclose the same.
The three bills also give regulators and law enforcement bodies the power to handle such media through legal means or have them taken down.
“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. 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,” said Newsom in an official press note on September 17.
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