The Babylon Bee, a website that skewers liberals, filed a lawsuit Monday challenging California’s new anti-satire laws, saying Gov. Gavin Newsom is trying to take the fun out of politics.
One law forbids posting or sharing online “deceptive” content that harms a candidate’s “electoral prospects” ahead of an election, while another prods social media companies to police their platforms for anything that would run afoul of the new standard.
Those who want to practice political satire — an area where Babylon Bee has few rivals — must attach a sort of product warning label which, The Bee says, effectively destroys the point of the satire.
“Unfortunately for them, the First Amendment secures our right to tell jokes they don’t like,” Bee CEO Seth Dillon said. Joining The Bee in the lawsuit is Kelly Chang Rickert, a lawyer who is active online with her own thoughts on politics and social issues.
They said the law grew out of Mr. Newsom’s anger at a video that manipulated real footage of Vice President Kamala Harris to make it seem like she was saying inane and politically damaging things. The “deepfake” video has her calling herself the “ultimate diversity hire” and mocking President Biden, interspersed with actual clips of real gaffes by Ms. Harris.
Mr. Newsom was so angered by the ad that he said it should be illegal.
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The state legislature took up the challenge and delivered two bills to his desk, which he signed last month. One law, AB 2839, bans the distribution of “materially deceptive content” concerning a candidate 120 days before an election unless the post discloses that it contains manipulated media.
The other, AB 2655, ropes “large” online platforms into scouring their sites for deepfake posts and taking them down.
Christopher Kohls, the creator of the Harris video, has also sued California over the new crackdown.
In passing the laws, the legislature said it was trying to grapple with the “first-ever artificial intelligence (AI) election,” and feared things were spiraling out of control.
“In a few clicks, using current technology, bad actors now have the power to create a false image of a candidate accepting a bribe, or a fake video of an elections official ‘caught on tape’ saying that voting machines are not secure, or generate an artificial robocall in the governor’s voice telling millions of Californians their voting site has changed,” the legislature said in its findings justifying the law.
It said the demand to label material as manipulated was a good compromise. California included strict instructions on the size and placement of the label.
The Bee, whose slogan is “Fake news you can trust,” said the label ruins the entire point of satire, and besides, what is satire or a parody is often very much a judgment call.
“As with satire and parody more generally, the Bee intends to and desires to have these posts expose bad ideas, cause viewers to reflect on the consequences of those ideas, and prompt viewers to take appropriate action to remedy the consequences of those ideas,” the outlet said in the lawsuit.
To make the point, The Bee included a lengthy gallery of some of its greatest hits, including: “In moment of lucidity, Biden endorses Trump”; “Tim Walz asks guy guarding Tomb of the Unknown Soldier why he doesn’t just desert him”; “California passes law requiring people fail a U.S. civics exam to be eligible to vote”; and “Trump adds a Kennedy in hopes he will draw all the sniper fire.”
The Bee also pointed to examples of its parody headlines that, it says, came true. One read: “9 reasons not to worry about the tanking economy.” It then pointed to a later Washington Post piece with the headline “7 ways a recession could be good for you financially.”
The case was filed in federal court in the Central District of California. State Attorney General Rob Bonta is the chief defendant.
His office declined to comment on the lawsuit, saying it would respond in court.
• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.
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