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 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 and John G. Geer Americans’ views on free speech change directions every so often. One of those times was during the protests at U.S. universities about the Israel-Hamas war. As scholars of free speech and public opinion, we set out to find out what happened and why. The Supreme Court itself, as […]
By Jacob Mchangama A recent spate of neo-Nazi demonstrations in Nashville has heightened tensions in an already polarized political environment. Fortunately, there has been bipartisan condemnation of these vile and obscene efforts to promote hatred in our community. However, some Tennessee public officials want to go beyond condemnation, claiming that “hate speech is not free […]
By Jeff Kosseff Though the opinion is likely not the final word on the Texas and Florida laws, it’s an important statement that the Court will not set different rules for online and offline speech. Although the Supreme Court’s opinion in Moody v. NetChoice and NetChoice v. Paxton reserved final judgment on state laws that restrict online content moderation, the […]
Nashville, Tenn., July 1, 2024 — Today, the U.S. Supreme Court issued its decisions in Moody v. NetChoice and NetChoice v. Paxton. The Future of Free Speech, a nonpartisan think tank located at Vanderbilt University, has issued the following statement, attributable to Senior Fellow Jeff Kosseff: “A majority of the Supreme Court signed on to the […]