Those who tweet or retweet AI-deep fakes intended to confuse voters about future elections may now be in legal jeopardy as a result of California's new law. Signing AB 2839 on Tuesday, Governor Gavin Newsom has appeared to hint that this measure, now in effect, might also bring Elon Musk and other perpetrators of false content retweets to account.

"'I just signed a bill to make this illegal in the state of California,' said Newsom in a tweet, referencing an AI deepfake Musk reposted earlier this year that made it appear Kamala Harris called herself an incompetent candidate and a diversity hire (she did not).

"You can no longer knowingly distribute an ad or other election communications that contain materially deceptive content — including deepfakes," Newsom said later in the tweet.

California targets AI distributors by zeroing in on those who post an AI deepfake if the post resembles a candidate on California ballots, and the poster knows it's a fake that will cause confusion. The law is novel in its approach as it does not target the producers of AI deepfakes or their platforms of appearance but targets the spreaders. The new legislation, says Epps, allows every person who sees an AI deepfake on social media to file for injunctive relief, which would allow a judge to order a poster to take down the material or to assess monetary damages against the person who posted it.

It's one of America's toughest laws against election-related AI deepfakes ahead of the 2024 presidential election.

A sponsor that helped craft AB 2839, the California Initiative for Technology and Democracy (CITED), tells TechCrunch this law can hit any social media user-not just Musk-who posts or reposts election-related AI deepfakes with malice. "Malice" means the poster knew it was false and would confuse voters.

This "materially deceptive content that is distributed knowing it's false, with reckless disregard of the truth, and is likely to influence the election," goes after the creators or distributors of content, should the content fall within the terms of the bill," according to CITED's policy director Leora Gershenzon in an interview with TechCrunch.

Asked if Musk could be taken to court for reposting deepfakes, Newsom didn't rule it out.

"I think Mr. Musk has missed the punchline," said Governor Newsom at a press conference Thursday. "Parody is still alive and well in California, but deepfakes and manipulations of elections-that hurts democracy.".

In particular, the new law prohibits election-related AI deepfakes in TV, radio, phone, texts, or any form of communication "distributed through the internet." As such, this sets the bill apart from most other statutes, which mostly target campaign ads. AB 2839 now opens up a window –120 days prior to a California election and 60 days afterward — where the rules about what you may legally post about political candidates are much tighter on social media.

The real goal actually isn't the damages or injunctive relief," Gershenzon said. "It's just to have people not do it in the first place. That actually would be the best outcome… to just have these deepfakes not fraudulently impact our elections.

This law refers to candidates who are running for state and local elections in California as well as the federal candidates, which will appear on California's ballot during the upcoming election, such as Kamala Harris or Donald Trump. In case an AI deepfake has an overt disclaimer stating that it was altered digitally, then AB 2839 does not apply to it.

Musk is already trying to test the will to enforce California's new law. Newsom recently brought up the deepfake resembling Kamala Harris, which Musk reposted on Tuesday, garnering more than 31 million impressions on X. Musk also reposted an AI deepfake resembling Governor Newsom on Wednesday, achieving more than 7 million impressions.

Musk and X have also other legal issues concerning moderation. For instance, on Thursday, the X Corporation was fined for violating Brazil's ban on the service by the Brazilian Supreme Court judge. Earlier, the judge stated that X's inability to combat fake news and hate speech has been damaging Brazil's democracy.