Musk’s X sues over Minnesota deepfake law →

Miranda Nazzaro, writing for The Hill:

Elon Musk’s social platform X filed a lawsuit Wednesday over a Minnesota law prohibiting the sharing of deepfakes to influence an election, alleging it violates free speech.

In the complaint, filed in federal court in Minnesota, X argues the law will “lead to blanket censorship, including of fully protected, core political speech.”

The law, passed in 2023, defines a deepfake as videos, audio recordings or photos created with artificial intelligence (AI) tools to “realistically impersonate” a person without their permission or knowledge.

Anyone who widely shares the deepfake within 90 days of an election could face criminal action.

By threatening criminal action against social media platforms, X argues platforms are more likely to err on the side of removing content, even when it is a “close call” on whether it is a deepfake.

What an indefensible, but weirdly expected hill to die on.