A federal judge has blocked a new California law allowing any person to sue for damages over election deepfakes.

Last month, a parody video creator known as "Mr Reagan" on YouTube and X (formerly Twitter), Christopher Kohls, sued to block the law. He claimed that AB 2839 was unconstitutionally targeting his protected satirical content—including a fake Kamala Harris video that Elon Musk retweeted, agitating California governor Gavin Newsom.

Judge John A. Mendez said AI and deepfakes pose significant risks, but the contentious law likely violates the First Amendment.

One of California's new AI laws, which aims to prevent AI deepfakes related to elections from spreading online, has been blocked a month before the US presidential elections. As TechCrunch and Reason report,

A federal judge on Wednesday blocked a California bill that bans AI-generated "deepfake" content and required the removal of "deceptive content" from social media.

This week, a federal judge halted enforcement of a California law targeting election misinformation. The ruling places an injunction on the law, which critics argued violated Californians' First Amendment rights.

A federal judge blocked an artificial intelligence deepfake law Wednesday that protects against political disinformation just two weeks after Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) signed it into law. The ruling is the result of a lawsuit filed by Chris Kohls,