By Gillian Brassil California’s new law that allows people to sue over election deepfakes was temporarily blocked by a federal judge. The judge, in granting a preliminary injunction on Wednesday, wrote that the law likely violates the First Amendment given its broad scope, even if digitally-altered media such as by artificial intelligence poses “significant” risks. […]
By Ashley Belanger Upholding the First Amendment, a senior US district judge has blocked California’s deepfakes law, AB 2839, which was designed to stop deceptive AI-generated content from impacting election outcomes. [ . . . ] A First Amendment scholar and senior fellow with the non-partisan think tank The Future of Free Speech, Jeff Kosseff praised […]
By Ray Fernandez 19 U.S. states have enacted laws regulating the use of generative AI in election communications, and seven more are considering bills. With no federal mandate, more than half of American states have enacted or are exploring laws designed to criminalize the creation and distribution of deepfakes in election-related content. [….] Deepfake laws […]
By Jacob Mchangama Democracy, California Gov. Gavin Newsom warns, is on the brink. The culprit? A wave of “disinformation powered by generative AI,” poised to “pollute our information ecosystems like never before.” With the 2024 election looming, Newsom and California Democrats argue that artificial intelligence-generated content threatens to warp public perception. In response, the Golden State has swiftly enacted two bold […]
By Ashley Rindsberg Demand for countering misinformation has exploded since 2016, with startups having raised over $300 million, often with governments as their first and primary customers The company NewsGuard, with over $21 million in funding, pressures advertisers, as well as third-party vendors, to blacklist outlets it deems untrustworthy Blackbird.AI, which last year raised a […]
By Danielle Smith A recent study by Vanderbilt University found that Americans generally love free speech, but their views change occasionally. One instance of this occurred during the protests at U.S. universities about the Israel-Hamas war. John Geer, professor of political science at Vanderbilt University, said the study replicated a 1939 poll that asked about […]
By Jacob Mchangama “The Left started it.” That was the common retort from right-wing X accounts like Libs of TikTok and their supporters, who attempted and often succeeded at getting people fired for making tasteless social media posts about the assassination attempt on Donald Trump back in July. Most of their victims weren’t public figures […]
By Jacob Mchangama X is the bastion of free speech on the Internet. At least that’s what Elon Musk and his raucous supporters would like you to believe any time one dares to point out his hypocritical, arbitrary, and often self-serving content moderation actions after taking over the social media platform. This week’s decision from […]
By J.D. Tuccille It’s no secret that governments around the world are chiseling away at people’s liberties. Rights advocates document a nearly two decade decline in freedom. Civil liberties activists warn of a worldwide free speech recession. And while American restrictions on government power hold the line better than pale equivalents elsewhere, the political class seems determined […]
By Joan Barata After two years of intense negotiations, the new United Nations (UN) Convention on “Strengthening international cooperation for combating certain crimes committed by means of information and communications technology systems and for the sharing of evidence in electronic form of serious crimes” (also known as the Cybercrime Convention) was adopted by consensus by […]