On September 27, 2024, Protect Democracy filed an amicus brief in a case challenging California’s new political deepfake labeling law, AB 2839. The law requires those who publish deceptive deepfakes about candidates, election officials, elected officials, and voting machine companies within a certain proximity to an election to label those deepfakes. One day after Governor Newsom signed the bill, an individual who published altered videos of Vice President Kamala Harris sued California in a facial challenge to the law, claiming the law violates the First Amendment. He has now filed a motion for a preliminary injunction, asking the Court to enjoin the statute in its entirety.

Protect Democracy filed its brief in support of neither party, in the hope that, however the Court rules, it does not short-circuit the ongoing development of deepfake labeling laws around the country. An overly broad reading of the First Amendment’s protection for deceptive political deepfakes could hamstring legislators around the country. Protect Democracy’s brief explains that many political deepfakes are entirely unprotected by the First Amendment, and that many other political deepfakes may nevertheless be subjected to reasonable labeling requirements consistent with the Constitution.