US judge overrules California deep fake law
A federal judge invalidated California’s Defending Democracy from Deepfake Deception Act, passed in 2024 to disallow deep fakes in political ads. Responding to a suit brought by Elon Musk’s X, the judge deferred to the Communications Decency Act’s Section 230, which since 1996 has provided tech platforms immunity from liability for user content, even if speech is deceptive or hateful.
The Deepfake Deception Act was intended to block deceptive content, including falsely showing candidates saying things they hadn’t. Freedom!