Elon Musk ridicules 'joker' Gavin Newsom as California Gov signs new anti-deepfake law

SACRAMENTO, CALIFORNIA: Elon Musk has publicly condemned California's Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom for signing a new law that bans deceptive political AI videos, commonly known as deepfakes.

Musk, who has been a frequent critic of Gavin Newsom, took to X to accuse the Governor of infringing on free speech, going as far as to calling him "the joker."

Elon Musk's criticism of Gavin Newsom's new law against deepfakes

Targeting the new law, tech billionaire Elon Musk, who has publicly endorsed Donald Trump, recently made a series of posts as he perceived it as a violation of First Amendment rights.

In one of Musk's posts on X, he reposted a deepfake video of Vice President Kamala Harris, which depicted her as an incompetent presidential candidate.

This clip is believed to have triggered Newsom’s move to push for legislation regulating such deepfake content.

On Tuesday, September 17, Newsom signed the law by fulfilling a promise he made in July 2024, targetting digitally altered political videos that could mislead voters.

However, Musk slammed Newsom's decision by posting a meme of the governor alongside the Batman villain Joker, adding the caption, “The Joker is in charge.”

The debate over deepfakes in politics

While some argue that deepfakes are a form of satire protected under the First Amendment, others view these content as potentially defamatory and harmful, raising concerns about how US law will handle the issue, particularly amid the presidential election.

Highlighting this ongoing debate, Musk tweeted, “You’re not gonna believe this, but @GavinNewsom just announced that he signed a LAW to make parody illegal, based on this video.”

Referencing the fact that his platform X moved its headquarters from California to Texas in recent years, Musk wrote, "Hard to be a free speech platform in a state that wants to ban free speech.”

Elon Musk’s history with AI-generated content

Elon Musk has repeatedly shared AI-generated images and videos on X that often portray Donald Trump in a positive light and Kamala Harris in a negative light.

While the Tesla CEO brands X as a champion of free speech, his platform retains the right to moderate content, including promoting, demoting, or even deleting posts.

Recently, the Supreme Court's ruling in NetChoice, LLC v Paxton affirmed the right of social media companies to moderate content as they view it fit, as protected under the First Amendment.

However, Musk has faced backlash for allegedly manipulating his platform to benefit his own content and has also been accused of suspending the accounts of journalists critical of Musk's actions, according to Newsweek.