Did Gov. Gavin Newsom sign a bill banning memes and parody in California? No, that's not true: The bill specifically exempts "Materially deceptive content that constitutes satire or parody." The Defending Democracy from Deepfake Deception Act of 2024 mandates that large online platforms either remove or label deceptive and digitally altered election-related content during specific timeframes.
The claim appeared in a post and video (archived here) published on X, formerly Twitter, on September 17, 2024. The video's caption said:
Gavin Newsom just signed a bill making memes and parody illegal in his state because of this video. Gavin will be very mad if this video went viral again!
This is what the post looked like on X at the time of writing:
(Source: X screenshot taken on Wed Sep 18 16:02:02 2024 UTC)
The California governor, a Democrat, signed AB-2655, the Defending Democracy from Deepfake Deception Act of 2024 (archived here), into law on September 17, 2024.
It mandates that large online platforms either remove or label deceptive and digitally altered election-related content during specific timeframes. It also requires platforms to offer ways for users to report such content. Additionally, the law allows candidates, elected officials, election authorities, the state attorney general and local prosecutors to pursue legal action if a platform fails to comply with the law.
Under section 20513(a)(2), the act defines "deceptive content" as any of the following:
(A) A candidate for elective office portrayed as doing or 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.
(B) An elections official portrayed as 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.
(C) An elected official portrayed 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.
The law spells out this specific exemption:
Materially deceptive content that constitutes satire or parody.
Gov. Gavin Newsom
A September 17, 2024, news release (archived here) from the California governor's office states that the bill takes "action to address the use of deepfakes and other deceptive digitally generated or altered content in election campaigns."
Neither Newsom nor the bill mentioned banning memes or parody in California.
The post
Lead Stories previously proved that the video included in the social-media post that is the target of this fact check was a deepfake: Fact Check: Video Is NOT Real Campaign Ad Using Kamala Harris' Voice, It's Deepfake.
Read more
Lead Stories' fact checks of other claims about Gov. Newsom or California can be read here. Our fact checks of claims related to Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic Party's 2024 presidential nominee, can be found here. Our fact checks of claims about the 2024 U.S. presidential elections are here.
