By Natalie Alkiviadou Introduction The piece gives an overview of the situation of media freedom and pluralism in the Republic of Cyprus. The Republic of Cyprus has de jure sovereignty over the entirety of the island. In practice, however, its governance is confined to the southern region while the northern part of the island is administered by the self-proclaimed […]
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 J.D. Tuccille Earlier this month, European Union Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton raised eyebrows when he publicly warned Elon Musk to respect the E.U.’s censorship laws during a then-pending interview with U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump. Even for the E.U., which has been slipping not-so-slowly towards soft totalitarianism, the attempt to extend E.U. jurisdiction […]
By Julia Tar Civil society groups and academics have criticised European Commissioner Thierry Breton’s recent letter to Elon Musk, the owner of the social media platform X, arguing that it misinterprets the EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA) and threatens free expression. The Open Letters In one of the letters, dated Wednesday (21 August), signed by The […]
Featuring Natalie Alkiviadou Senior Research Fellow Natalie Alkiviadou joins The Lembit Öpik Show for TNT Radio to discuss a proposed “fake news” bill in Cyprus. The bill, which Dr. Alkiviadou wrote about at Verfassungsblog, would impose a prison sentence of up to five years for those accused of spreading disinformation. Alkiviadou expresses concern about the […]
By Natalie Alkiviadou A Proposal to Criminalize Fake News in Cyprus In Cyprus, a new legislative proposal introduces a prison sentence of up to five years on those spreading fake news. I argue that criminally punishing fake news is absolutely horrifying for free speech, for media pluralism, and for democracy. Criminalizing fake news is, to say […]