Babylon Bee gets California law banning political deepfakes struck down

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00:00A federal judge has blocked a California law banning political deepfakes after critics said

00:05it restricted free speech. The judge made the decision after the Babylon Bee, a conservative

00:10Christian satire website, and others filed a lawsuit arguing that the law violated free speech

00:16rights. In September of last year, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed two bills into law,

00:24Assembly Bill 2839 and AB 2655. Both laws aim to restrict the creation and use of deepfake

00:32content featuring political figures, especially during election periods, to prevent misinformation.

00:38U.S. District Judge John Mendez sided with the Babylon Bee and decided that the California laws

00:44violate the First Amendment. Judge Mendez ruled that California's AB 2839 unlawfully censors speech

00:51before any actual harm occurs, lacks precedent under the First Amendment, and could have been

00:56narrowly tailored to target only false speech causing real legal harm. Rather than targeting

01:02content that procures tangible harms or materially benefits a speaker, AB 2839 attempts to stifle

01:09speech before it occurs or actually harms anyone, as long as it is reasonably likely to do so,

01:16and it allows almost anyone to act as a censorship czar, Mendez wrote.

01:20The Babylon Bee and the other plaintiffs in the case were represented by Alliance Defending Freedom,

01:25a legal organization focused on religious freedom and free speech.

01:30Our job is hard enough when our jokes keep coming true, as if they were prophecies,

01:35the Babylon Bee's CEO, Seth Dillon, said in a statement.

01:38But it becomes significantly more difficult when self-serving politicians abuse their power

01:43to try to control public discourse and clamp down on comedy.

01:46We're pleased the court recognized the First Amendment secures our right to tell jokes,

01:51even ones the government doesn't like.

01:54In July 2024, after Newsom saw a parody video of Vice President Kamala Harris and said it should

02:00be illegal, the California legislature quickly passed those two bills aimed at restricting such

02:05content. Newsom then signed those bills into law on September 17, 2024.

02:10For Straight Arrow News, I'm Lauren Keenan. If you want more on this story,

02:15download the Straight Arrow News app or visit SIN.com.