The world has long known that communist despots have very thin skins and do not like it when the unwashed proletariat pokes fun at them or their tyrannical minions.
So, I guess it comes as no surprise to us proletarians who reside in the People’s Republic of Kalifornia (PRK) that our Great Leader, Gov. Gavin Newsom, has outlawed political satire in the state—unless you plaster the word “satire” in big block letters on top of your work to make sure that not a single soul will assume what you write or post on the internet is true.
What’s behind this decision to curb free speech in the PRK?
It all began back in July when a Komisar Newsom angrily tweeted that a parody video of Vice President Kamala Harris should be “illegal.”
What exactly got Komisar Newsom’s knickers in a twist?
Take a look at the short video for yourself: https://twitter.com/i/status/1816974609637417112
Kalifornia’s masses are clearly too stupid to see the video for what it is—pure satire. So Great Leader Newsom and his socialist toadies in the legislature decided they must safeguard Kalifornia’s squalid, unwitting folk.
Similar videos have been posted or shared by high-profile social media outlets, such as the wickedly satirical Babylon Bee website, Donald Trump’s Truth Social site, and Elon Musk’s X platform.
“The First Amendment gives breathing room in our political debates to let many ideas air and ventilate—even political depictions that some may deem deceptive,” wrote Kristen Waggoner, CEO, president, and general counsel of the Alliance Defending Freedom in a recent commentary.
“The First Amendment protects this freedom because it trusts the American people to be able to think and decide for themselves in the context of debating political candidates and issues,” she continued. “In this context, distinguishing political fact from fiction is often difficult. But it is always better to trust the people than the politicians to make that call.”
When Great Leader Newsom learned that Elon Musk was sharing the above parody of Kamala Harris on X with its 600 million monthly users, he vowed to sign a bill to combat deep fake election content.
Musk was quick to respond to Newsom’s threat by reposting the initial Kamala Harris deep fake video on X, writing, “You’re not gonna believe this, but @GavinNewsom just announced that he will sign a law to make parody illegal based on this video.”
The sycophantic socialists and Marxists who control Kalifornia’s legislature were listening to their Great Leader and quickly clicked their heels, snapped to attention, and passed two laws that ignored the First Amendment.
The first law, AB 2839, applies within 120 days of an election to any person or group that distributes “materially deceptive content” about candidates, elected officials, and other election material. The law takes “action to address the use of deep fakes and other deceptive digitally generated or altered content in election campaigns.”
It also requires people to put disclaimers on satirical posts saying, “This … has been manipulated for purposes of satire or parody.” Never mind that a label defeats the point of satire. The law even requires that the label be “easily readable by the average viewer” and “no smaller than the largest font size of other text” in the content.
The second law, AB 2655, requires large online platforms such as X, Facebook, and Instagram to self-censor by labeling or removing posts with “materially deceptive content” about elections.
Both laws violate the U.S. Constitution and are already the target of lawsuits.
Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) attorneys have filed a lawsuit against the new laws on behalf of The Babylon Bee and Kelly Chang Rickert, a California attorney who regularly engages in online political satire and debate.
Of course, here in the People’s Republic of Kalifornia, the First Amendment is considered little more than an inconvenient external impediment to the totalitarian mindset that exists within the Democrat-controlled legislature.
The last thing the Marxist monocracy that dominates the People’s Republic of Kalifornia wants is for the proletarian masses to be able to criticize those who hold political power over them.
“Safeguarding the integrity of elections is essential to democracy, and it’s critical that we ensure AI is not deployed to undermine the public’s trust through disinformation -– especially in today’s fraught political climate,” Newsom said as he signed the bills into law. “These measures will help to combat the harmful use of deepfakes in political ads and other content, one of several areas in which the state is being proactive to foster transparent and trustworthy AI.”
Kalifornia Democrats are especially terrified by The Babylon Bee and Rickert—both of whom adhere to a longstanding American tradition: using humor and satire to reveal hypocrisy and fundamental truths—especially on political topics is a right, not a privilege.
“We understand that free speech is a core tenet of our liberty in the United States,” Waggoner wrote. “The way to combat lies and “misinformation” is to promote more, true speech, not censorship. These two laws are a perfect roadmap for widespread government censorship. By using vague standards like banning content “likely to harm” a candidate’s “electoral prospects,” AB 2839 allows government officials to punish people for posting political memes that the officials dislike.”
Specifically, the ADF argues that the new law prohibits people from posting and reposting an unlabeled satirical meme or story on social media, and it allows anyone who sees it and disagrees with it to sue violators and collect attorneys’ fees. That’s a recipe for political retaliation.
Furthermore, AB 2655 forces large online platforms to become government censorship arms. This kind of coercion represents a deeply disturbing trend that the Biden-Harris administration has already engaged in, and it is a blatant violation of the First Amendment’s protection against government censorship.
The ADF maintains that banning a large social media platform because it could lead to an election outcome that government actors dislike should offend all Americans who understand the First Amendment.
Komisar Newsom would do well to heed the words of that great English wordsmith, G. K. Chesterton:
“A man is angry at a libel because it is false, but at a satire because it is true.”
–30–
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