Rumble Video Platform Sues California Over Anti-Deepfake Law

Video sharing platform Rumble Inc. sued California over a state law that regulates how platforms handle AI-generated “deepfakes,” alleging the statute violates the First Amendment.

Rumble, a Canadian company which promotes itself as an alternative to YouTube, said AB 2655 forces the platform to censor user content even if it doesn’t violate Rumble’s terms of service.

The law mandates that large online platforms remove and label content California officials consider “reasonably likely” harm electoral prospects of candidates or likely to undermine confidence in an election, according to the complaint filed Wednesday in the US District Court for the Eastern District of California.

But the law, which is set to go into effect in 2025, is “substantially overbroad because it does not adequately define various material terms in the statute,” the complaint said.

The suit said Rumble doesn’t have the technology to “automatically identify digitally altered images or audio shared by users” and even if it did, “it is unlikely that Rumble would be able to identify all content that might arguably violate AB 2655, particularly given the law’s vagueness.”

The suit follows a pair of similar First Amendment complaints from the conservative satire publication The Babylon Bee and a YouTube creator Christopher Kohls who made a parody deepfake video criticizing Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris.

The Babylon Bee’s suit targeted another new California law AB 2389, which requires a label on satirical content.

A federal judge in October blocked the California attorney general from enforcing AB 2389 against Kohls, finding that the law likely violates the First Amendment. State officials later agreed to not enforce the law against the Babylon Bee.

The California attorney general’s office didn’t immediately return a request for comment.

Chavez-Ochoa Law Offices Inc. and Alliance Defending Freedom represents Rumble.

The case is Rumble Inc. v. Bonta, E.D. Cal., No. 2:24-cv-03315, 11/27/24.