Benedict Smith.
Cameron Henderson
03 October 2024 1:16am
California has been accused of outlawing satire after the passing of a new law intended to clamp down on misinformation.
The legislation, which was passed in September, prevents anyone from posting “materially deceptive” content online about a political candidate 60 days before an election.
However, critics claim that Gavin Newsom, the California governor, is criminalising political satire, parody and jokes.
The Babylon Bee, a satirical publication that describes itself as “the definitive source of fake news”, and Kelly Chang Rickert, a lawyer who runs a blog, are seeking to prevent the enforcement of the measures through the courts.
Although the laws technically allow for the publication of satire or parody, the plaintiffs claim that this is only if the material is labelled as such in a font the same size as the headline.
If they violate those restrictions, they claim they will be exposed to “significant attorneys’ fees, costs, and damages”.
‘Self-serving politicians’
Seth Dillon, the chief executive of the Babylon Bee, said in a statement: “Our job is hard enough when our jokes keep coming true, as if they were prophecies.
“But it becomes significantly more difficult when self-serving politicians abuse their power to try and control public discourse and clamp down on comedy. Unfortunately for them, the First Amendment secures our right to tell jokes they don’t like.”
Jonathan Scruggs, who is representing the plaintiffs, said in a statement: “California’s war against political memes is censorship, plain and simple.”
Mr Scruggs, the vice-president of civil litigation at the Alliance for Defending Freedom, added: “We shouldn’t trust the government to decide what is true in our online political debates.
“Gov. Gavin Newsom recently signed two laws punishing political speech, with one law taking effect immediately, just as the election season heated up – a time when we need more speech, not less.”
Mr Newsom’s office told The Telegraph on Wednesday that it was still reviewing the lawsuit but regarded the complaint as another “joke” from the Babylon Bee.
It said: “These new laws are no more stringent than those already passed across the country, including in deep red states like Alabama. Satire is alive and well in California – even for those who miss the punchline.”
The post California accused of ‘criminalising jokes’ with fake news law appeared first on The Telegraph.
