I wrote about Gavin Newsom just a few days ago being one of, if not the most, humorless politicians to ever exist. Last year, meanwhile, Kamala Harris was the target of satire and mockery for her often insipid and often incoherent statements. Generally, her own words and statements would suffice. She was and remains a walking parody.
However, one ad caught the attention of Gavin Newsom and his cronies in the California statehouse after Elon Musk reposted it.
This is amazing 😂
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 26, 2024
pic.twitter.com/KpnBKGUUwn
Unless you are a 3-year-old, it’s obvious that the video is a parody and the voiceover is fake. Musk’s repost has a laughing emoji. No one with an IQ above room temperature considered that post to be anything other than parody – yet the scolds in Sacramento thought that restricting speech was a great idea. The Dems drafted and passed their new anti-speech legislation, AB 2839, and Gavin Newsom signed it into law. Dems had to know that they were wrong, but they did it anyway. Our Jeff Charles reported on it last year:
The laws were passed after Newsom wrote a post on X suggesting that a parody video of Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris should be “illegal.” The state’s legislature then passed two laws banning political expression labeled as “materially deceptive content.”
Bablyon Bee CEO Seth Dillon argued that the laws, which require certain types of parody and satire to be clearly labeled as such, threaten the integrity of satire and parody, which rely on subtlety and humor. “If we’re unable to publish satire without putting disclaimers all over it, and we’re going to face potential penalties if we don’t do that, then that’s a very serious issue too,” he told The Daily Wire.
That attempt at speech suppression was struck down, with a grant of summary judgment with a permanent injunction.
A federal judge has struck down a California law signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom that prohibits the creation of deepfake images and videos of politicians after conservative Christian satire site Babylon Bee and others sued.
In the 24-page ruling, Judge John Mendez wrote:
Rather than targeting content that procures tangible harms or materially benefits a speaker, AB 2839 attempts to stifle speech before it occurs or actually harms anyone as long as it is 'reasonably likely' to do so and it allows almost anyone to act as a censorship czar.
Judge Mendez also noted on page four:
California defends the statute by highlighting AB 2839’s exemptions for parody and satire and arguing that the statute only regulates content that purports to be an authentic record of actual events. See D. MSJ at 2. The Court finds that AB 2839 discriminates based on content, viewpoint, and speaker and targets constitutionally protected speech.
The court concluded with:
To be sure, deepfakes and artificially manipulated media arguably pose significant risks to electoral integrity, but the challenges launched by digital content on a global scale cannot be quashed through censorship or legislative fiat. Just as the government may not dictate the canon of comedy, California cannot pre-emptively sterilize political content.
The plaintiffs, through counsel, were justifiably happy with the ruling:
"Making fun of politicians and criticizing the government is a core First Amendment right. That includes using new technology to create parody campaign ads or satirical memes," ADF Senior Counsel Johannes Widmalm-Delphonse, who argued the case before the court, said in a statement.
"The court was right to rein in California's blatant censorship. We can't trust the government to decide what is true in our online political debates."
I didn’t think this was going to be a “hard” decision to make. The reason for the legislation was a specific event (the Chris Kohls ["Mr. Reagan"] parody ad and the Elon Musk repost).
No one could watch that parody video and mistake the voice-over for Harris's voice. Not a chance.
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