The lawsuit argues that the deepfake statute coerces social media companies into removing “any content that presents a close call” to “avoid criminal penalties and costly lawsuits later.”
Elon Musk’s X has filed a lawsuit against Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, claiming that a recently-passed state law regulating the use of “deepfakes” is unlawful.
According to CBS News, the lawsuit was filed on Wednesday in federal court. Attorneys for X say that Minnesota’s law is patently unconstitutional and, if left unchecked, “will lead to blanket censorship, including of fully protected, core political speech.”
The statute, enacted in 2023, makes it a crime for any person to “[disseminate] a deep fake or [enter] into a contract or other agreement to disseminate a deep fake” in an attempt to influence an election.
However, the law has a caveat: it only applies within 90 days of a political party’s convention, or after early voting for general elections has already commenced.
X claims that its platform, along with others, could now be “accused of violating the statute—and potentially be subjected to criminal liability—for merely having these pictures display on its platform.”
The lawsuit argues that the deepfake statute coerces social media companies into removing “any content that presents a close call” to “avoid criminal penalties and costly lawsuits later.”
“The statute’s requirements are so vague and unintelligible that social media platforms cannot understand how to comply with them; thus, those subject to its language will be compelled to over-censor speech to avoid costly litigation potentially leading to criminal liability, over countless judgment calls surrounding whether the statute prohibits particular pieces of content,” the lawsuit alleges.
But Minnesota state Sen. Erin Maye Quade, one of the law’s authors, said the bill was written to withstand First Amendment challenges.
“It’s not saying that you can never make a deepfake of a candidate,” Maye Quade said. “It’s just saying that, within the window of voting, you can’t make a deepfake that is so realistic that people don’t know that it’s not real with the intent to injure the candidate and influence an election. Those are very, very narrow criteria, and I think it’s a good law.”
May Quade gave CBS News the example of a deepfake showing Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz with his arms spinning off and around his body. According to her, this sort of deepfake would be permissible, because any reasonable person would immediately recognize that the animation is fictional. But what wouldn’t be allowed would be a deepfake showing a candidate doing or saying something that they never said, with the specific intent of harming that individual’s electoral performance.
Sources
Elon Musk’s X sues Minnesota AG, arguing state’s “deepfake” law violates free speech
Musk’s X sues to block Minnesota ‘deepfake’ law over free speech concerns
Join the conversation!