Elon Musk's reposts of Kamala Harris deepfakes may not fly under new California law

Maxwell Zeff
Updated ·3 min read

California's newest law could land social media users who post, or repost, AI deepfakes that deceive voters about upcoming elections in legal trouble. Governor Gavin Newsom suggests that AB 2839, which went into effect immediately after he signed it on Tuesday, could be used to reel in the retweets of Elon Musk, among others who spread deceptive content.

"I just signed a bill to make this illegal in the state of California," said Newsom in a tweet, referencing an AI deepfake Musk reposted earlier this year that made it appear Kamala Harris called herself an incompetent candidate and a diversity hire (she did not).

"You can no longer knowingly distribute an ad or other election communications that contain materially deceptive content — including deepfakes," Newsom said later in the tweet.

California's new law targets the distributors of AI deepfakes, specifically if the post resembles a candidate on California ballots, and the poster knows it's a fake that will cause confusion. AB 2839 is unique because it doesn't go after the creators of AI deepfakes, or the platforms they appear on, but rather those who maliciously spread them. Anyone who sees an AI deepfake on social media can now file for injunctive relief, meaning a judge could order the poster to take it down, or issue monetary damages against the person who posted it.

It's one of America's strongest laws against election-related AI deepfakes heading into the 2024 presidential election.

A sponsor that helped draft AB 2839, California Initiative for Technology and Democracy (CITED), tells TechCrunch this law can impact any social media user -- not just Musk -- who posts or reposts election-related AI deepfakes with malice. "Malice" means the poster knew it was false and would confuse voters.

"[AB 2839] goes after the creators or distributors of content, if the content falls within the terms of the bill," said CITED's policy director, Leora Gershenzon, in an interview with TechCrunch. "This is materially deceptive content that is distributed knowing it's false, with reckless disregard of the truth, and is likely to influence the election."

When asked whether Musk could face legal action for reposting deepfakes, Newsom did not rule out the possibility.

"I think Mr. Musk has missed the punchline," said Governor Newsom at a press conference Thursday. "Parody is still alive and well in California, but deepfakes and manipulations of elections -- that hurts democracy."

Specifically, the new law bans election-related AI deepfakes from TV, radio, phone, texts, or any communication "distributed through the internet." The bill is not exclusive to political campaign ads, which other laws have focused on, but also posts from everyday people. AB 2839 creates a window --120 days before a California election and 60 days after -- where there are stricter rules about what you can, and can not, post about political candidates on social media.

"The real goal is actually neither the damages or the injunctive relief," said Gershenzon. "It's just to have people not do it in the first place. That actually would be the best outcome... to just have these deepfakes not fraudulently impact our elections."

This law pertains to candidates for state and local elections in California, as well as federal candidates that will appear on California's ballot, such as Kamala Harris and Donald Trump. If there's an obvious disclaimer on an AI deepfake, stating that it has been digitally altered, then AB 2839 does not apply to it.

Musk is already trying to test the will to enforce California's new law. Musk reposted the deepfake resembling Kamala Harris that Newsom referenced in his tweet on Tuesday, amassing more than 31 million impressions on X. Musk also reposted an AI deepfake resembling Governor Newsom on Wednesday, which received more than 7 million impressions.

Musk and X are facing other legal problems related to moderation. For instance, a Brazilian Supreme Court judge fined the X Corporation on Thursday for skirting the country's ban on the platform. The judge previously said X's failure to combat fake news and hate speech is harming Brazil's democracy.

Latest Stories

  • Adam Kinzinger Shares His 'Honest To God' Thoughts About Trump Win

    The former House Republican got "absolutely" clear about what he called a right-wing "narrative."

  • Ex-Obama Adviser Snidely Boils Down Harris Defeat To 1 Faction Of Democratic Party

    David Axelrod provided an unflattering description of what Democrats have become, saying this led to Kamala Harris' loss in the presidential election.

  • Van Jones on Trump win: ‘It turned out we were the idiots’

    CNN pundit Van Jones says Democrats’ media strategy is a major reason Vice President Harris lost this week’s presidential election to former President Trump. “We got beat because the conservatives and Republicans built a different media system,” Jones said on the channel Thursday. “It had to do with online, had to do with podcasts, with


  • CNBC Host Fumes At Anthony Scaramucci, Asks If He's 'Embarrassed' By His Trump Take

    Joe Kernen wasn't having it with the former White House communications director after he knocked Donald Trump's rhetoric.

  • The 2024 Election May Have One More Surprise

    The 2024 election may have one last card to play: the House of Representatives, where a majority hasn’t been called for either party. The overwhelming likelihood is that the House will follow the national electorate and give Republicans a majority again, confirming unified government under President-elect Donald Trump. The Associated Press, whose calls Barron’s relies on, has projected that of the 435 House seats, Republicans have won 211 versus 199 for Democrats.

  • People Are Sharing Stories Of Trump Supporters Who Voted Waaaay Against Their Own Interests, And It's Wild

    "I actually had a Trump voter say to me today 'he’s not really gonna get rid of the ACA right? My wife and I both have plans through it.'"

  • Harris Surrogate Says Joe Biden Gave a ‘Big F You’ to Fellow Democrats With Kamala Endorsement | Video

    A member of the finance committee says the campaign was a “$1 billion disaster” The post Harris Surrogate Says Joe Biden Gave a ‘Big F You’ to Fellow Democrats With Kamala Endorsement | Video appeared first on TheWrap.

  • Rudy Giuliani Says He’s Too Broke to Buy Food Amid Defamation Suit Struggle

    Rudy Giuliani has alleged that he doesn’t have enough money to feed himself after a federal judge ordered him to start paying the $148 million judgment he faces for defaming Georgia poll workers in the wake of the 2020 election. The former New York City mayor and close ally to Donald Trump took to X to whine about his fiscal woes and beg followers to donate to his fundraising campaign. “Wilkie Farr Law firm and Judge Liman are trying to inhibit me from making a living,” he wrote. “They seized my

  • Trump Demands Action Against His Enemies After Rumors of a Truth Social Selloff

    Donald Trump’s presidential victory on Tuesday night has apparently had no sobering effect on his penchant for urging law enforcement to take down his enemies. On Thursday morning, the president-elect emphatically swore that he has no intention of selling off shares in his social media platform, Truth Social, and demanded that authorities investigate anyone who suggested otherwise. “There are fake, untrue, and probably illegal rumors and/or statements made by, perhaps, market manipulators or sho

  • The Mysterious Erasure of ‘Mamacita’ Kimberly Guilfoyle

    Donald Trump Jr.’s fiancĂ©e Kimberly Guilfoyle may have been the only woman in the world more somber than Vice President Kamala Harris following Tuesday’s election results—and all the contouring in the world couldn’t hide it on her face. Though dressed the part in MAGA red, Guilfoyle appeared to be the odd woman out as she joined the Trump clan onstage Wednesday to celebrate President-elect Donald Trump’s victory in Palm Beach, Florida. And Don Jr. seemed to be making sure she felt it. The scene:

  • Nancy Pelosi Is Back Trashing Biden for Kamala Harris Fiasco

    Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said that she expected an open primary to take place after President Joe Biden’s exit from the race, instead of a Kamala Harris endorsement. Pelosi, who spoke to The New York Times podcast The Interview this week, said that things might have been different if an open primary had occurred. “The anticipation was that, if the president were to step aside, that there would be an open primary,” Pelosi said in the interview, which will be released on Saturday.

  • Bill Maher Has Blunt Message for Democrats After Shocking Election Loss: ‘Look in the Mirror’ | Video

    Maher says Trump won in part because "this country has had enough of the anti-common sense woke bulls---" during Friday's episode of "Real Time" The post Bill Maher Has Blunt Message for Democrats After Shocking Election Loss: ‘Look in the Mirror’ | Video appeared first on TheWrap.

  • Sunny Hostin stokes tense fight on “The View ”for asking“ ”'what's wrong with America?' after election: 'Voters are the problem?'

    Sara Haines and Alyssa Farah Griffin staunchly opposed Hostin's assessment, with Haines cutting Hostin off twice to firmly ask that she be able to finish her point.

  • Trump says Haley, Pompeo will not join second administration

    WASHINGTON (Reuters) -President-elect Donald Trump said on Saturday that former Republican presidential contender Nikki Haley and former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will not be asked to join his administration. "I will not be inviting former Ambassador Nikki Haley, or former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, to join the Trump Administration, which is currently in formation," Trump posted on social media.

  • Elon Musk Plays Secretary of State as Trump Calls Zelensky

    Elon Musk signed onto a Wednesday phone call between Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelensky that the Ukrainian president described as “excellent.” Musk’s surprising involvement in the conversation, first reported by Axios, hints at just how influential the world’s richest person, who emerged as a close and powerful ally for Trump in the run-up to his election victory, may be to the new administration. Musk has been floated as a possible candidate for a Trump Cabinet position, and the president-elec

  • ‘It‘s Gonna Be Hysterical!’ Jesse Watters Says of Watching Trump’s Proposed Mass Deportations

    Jesse Watters revealed his very unique sense of humor while talking about Donald Trump’s proposed mass deportations. The President-elect has a vision to remove around 11 million people from the country, and said this week that no level of expenditure would stop him from seeing it through. “You have no choice,” Trump reportedly said of his plan, adding that there “is no price tag” to equal the value of the biggest mass deportation in U.S. history.

  • Jon Favreau: Team Biden Secretly Knew Trump Would Crush Him

    Pod Save America host and former Obama speechwriter Jon Favreau said Friday that before Joe Biden dropped out of the presidential race in July, his campaign’s internal polls showed Donald Trump beating him in a rematch with at least 400 electoral votes. Favreau also blamed the Biden camp for simultaneously downplaying polls showing the president was unpopular. “He and his inner circle, they refused to believe the polls. They refused to believe he was unpopular. They refused to acknowledge until

  • Opinion: I guess Trump won because Democrats forgot to cheat. Oops!

    You want to know how badly the Democrats screwed up the presidential election? So badly they forgot to cheat.

  • A worsening kind of Russian warfare was on display in the US presidential election, but it's a much bigger problem

    Harris' quick and peaceful concession to Trump may deny US adversaries opportunities to stoke unrest in the months ahead, an expert said.

  • Rumors Snopes Fact-Checked About Voting, Results of 2024 Election

    We've been hard at work fact-checking such claims that have spread in the aftermath of the election.