California Governor Gavin Newsom signed a bill into law Tuesday banning the distribution of  “election communications that contain materially deceptive content,” including obvious parodies.

The new law came in response to a parody video shared by Elon Musk on X that poked fun at Democrat nominee for president Kamala Harris. In the AI generated video, Harris seemingly exposes herself as a stupid and incompetent candidate for president.

“I was hired because I am the ultimate diversity hire. I am both a woman and a person of color,” the voiceover states. “So if you criticize anything I say, you’re both sexist and racist.”

After Musk shared the video back in July, Newsom posted on X: “Manipulating a voice in an ‘ad’ like this one should be illegal. I’ll be signing a bill in a matter of weeks to make sure it is.”

In response, Musk posted on July 28: “I checked with renowned world authority, Professor Suggon Deeznutz, and he said parody is legal in America.”

On Tuesday, Newsom announced that he had made good on his promise to ban such content in California.

“You can no longer knowingly distribute an ad or other election communications that contain materially deceptive content,” Newsom declared on X, Tuesday.

Newsom also signed a companion bill on Tuesday to force platforms to pull down “deepfakes” when users flag them, and a third measure requiring disclaimers on political ads that use AI.

“Governor Gavin Newsom today signed three measures to remove deceptive content from large online platforms, increase accountability, and better inform voters,” Newsom’s office said.

“You’re not gonna believe this, but Gavin Newsom just announced that he signed a LAW to make parody illegal,” Musk posted on X, noting that the post even said “PARODY” in all caps!

“Gavin Newsom is a total Karen,” said one influencer on X, to which Musk replied, “💯”.

None of the new measures will take effect until after the November election.

When they are implemented, courts will be empowered “to issue injunctions blocking people from distributing intentionally deceptive political content during election season, and it exposes people who share ‘deepfakes’ to civil penalties.”

The new laws help cement California’s leading role in regulating emergent AI even as the state’s homegrown tech industry has pushed back and blocked some laws. Democratic state lawmakers have embraced those efforts as a divided Congress struggles to advance meaningful legislation and concerns about AI’s potentially anti-democratic downsides reverberate around the world.

Newsom signed the measures on the same day Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff, the front-runner to become California’s next senator, helped introduce a similar bill to ban fraudulent AI campaign ads. Deputy U.S. Attorney General Lisa Monaco highlighted AI threats, including those emanating from foreign adversaries, during POLITICO’s AI and Tech summit on Tuesday.

“It is the ultimate double-edged sword: it holds great promise but also exceptional peril because it’s lowering the barrier to entry for all sorts of malicious actors,” Monaco said. “There will be changes in law, I’m confident, over time.”

Indeed, the law as it stands would unlikely survive legal scrutiny, as the the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously ruled in Hustler v. Falwell in 1988 that “a parody, which no reasonable person expected to be true, was protected free speech.”

The governor appeared to argue Tuesday that the measures are meant to be nonpartisan, telling Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff the company’s annual Dreamforce conference in San Francisco: “I could care less if it was Harris or Trump.”

Conservative influencers on X however predicted that the law, in practice, will only be deployed against rightwing content.

Collin Rugg, co-owner of Trending Politics, pointed out that if the law were applied fairly, the Harris-Walz Campaign X account would be banned for repeatedly sharing deceptive content.

The Trump Campaign strives to post factually correct information or valid opinions, while also sharing humorous memes and parodies. Unlike Team Trump, however, Harris HQ frequently posts content that is meant to deceive the public.

CNN, surprisingly, released a report recently that called out “Kamala HQ” for posting “deceptive,” and “misleading” video clips.

“A social media account run by Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign has been repeatedly deceptive,” CNN reported earlier this month. “[Kamala HQ] has made a habit of misleadingly clipping and inaccurately captioning video clips to attack former President Donald Trump.”

Harris HQ’s brazen habit of sharing deceptive and fraudulent content has also captured the attention of foreign media.

In a report Wednesday, the Times of India detailed “8 times Kamala Harris’ campaign spread fake news.”

“For instance, misleading posts suggested Trump was confused about his location at rallies and misrepresented his comments on immigration and Charlottesville,” the paper reported, adding that the posts created “a distorted image of Trump” and fueled “disinformation in the public discourse.”

“These incidents demonstrate the challenges of rapid-response social media campaigns and raise questions about the ethical responsibilities of political campaigns in presenting factual information to the public,” The Times of India reported.