The Democrat-controlled California legislature passed multiple bills last week intended to ban “deepfakes,” require social media companies to block “deceptive content” during elections in the state, and regulate artificial intelligence.
According to The Post Millennial, one of the laws the California legislature passed before the August 31 deadline is the “Defending Democracy from Deepfake Deception Act of 2024.” If signed by the governor, the bill would require a “large online platform,” which the legislation defines as a “public-facing internet website, web application, or digital application, including a social media platform,” to “block the posting of materially deceptive content related to elections in California, during specified periods before and after an election.”
The legislation would also require large online platforms to “label certain additional content inauthentic, fake, or false during specified periods before and after an election in California” and would require political campaigns to designate whether advertisements have been altered by artificial intelligence.
According to the bill, social media companies and online platforms would be required to enforce the ban on “deceptive content” 120 days prior to an election and 60 days after an election.
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The California legislation noted that “deceptive content” includes portraying a political candidate as “saying something that the candidate did not do or say and that is reasonably likely to harm the reputation or electoral prospects of a candidate” or an elections official “doing or saying something in connection with the performance of their elections-related duties that the elections official did not do or say and that is reasonably likely to falsely undermine confidence in the outcome of one or more election contests.”
The legislation also defines deceptive content as portraying an elected official as “doing or saying something that influences an election in California that the elected official did not do or say and that is reasonably likely to falsely undermine confidence in the outcome of one or more election contests.”
In addition to the “Defending Democracy from Deepfake Deception Act of 2024,” the California legislature also passed the “California AI Transparency Act,” which mandates a person who “creates, codes, or otherwise produces a generative artificial intelligence system that has over 1,000,000 monthly visitors,” to give users access to an “AI detection tool” that can help residents determine whether content was “created or altered” by artificial intelligence.
Finally, the California legislature also passed the “Safe and Secure Innovation for Frontier Artificial Intelligence Models Act,” which establishes guardrails for training artificial intelligence.
The Post Millennial reported that Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-Calif.) has until the end of the month to sign or veto the laws that were recently approved by the state legislature.
