The popular news satire group Babylon Bee — described as “your trusted source for Christian news satire” on its website — has filed a lawsuit against two California laws that “censor online content, including political satire and parody,” according to the Alliance Defending Freedom.
ADF attorneys filed the lawsuit Monday (Sept. 30) in response to California Gov. Gavin Newsom recently signing the laws. ADF noted in its news release the two laws “censor freedom of speech by using vague standards to punish people for posting certain political content online, including political memes and parodies of politicians.”
“The two laws apply around election time to censor speech through subjective standards like prohibiting pictures and videos ‘likely to harm’ a candidate’s ‘electoral prospects,'” ADF said. “AB 2839 and AB 2655 apply to any person or entity who distributes ‘materially deceptive content’ about candidates, elected officials, and other election material.”
ADF noted two California laws require the following:
— AB 2839 “forces speakers to include a disclaimer when posting satire, defeating the point of satire”;
—AB 2655 applies to large online platforms and “requires them to sometimes label, and other times remove, posts with ‘materially deceptive content.’”
Penalties for violating the laws, ADF noted, include attorneys’ fees, costs and damages.
Andrew Walker, ethics and public theology professor at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, affirmed the lawsuit in post on X. “This is the way. When the government acts like a scolding censor, remind it that we have the First Amendment for a reason. Well done @ADFLegal.”
‘War against political memes’
“California’s war against political memes is censorship, plain and simple,” noted Jonathan Scruggs, ADF vice president of Litigation Strategy and Center for Conscience Initiatives. “We shouldn’t trust the government to decide what is true in our online political debates.”
He added, “Gov. Newsom has no constitutional authority to act as the humor police. While lawmakers act as if posting and resharing memes is a threat to democracy, these laws at the end of the day censor speech California politicians don’t like.”
Moving forward
The lawsuit noted, according to the news release, “despite the substantial risk of harm imposed by the laws, The Babylon Bee continues to post satirical or parodical content and is unwilling to include the disclaimer required by one of the laws.”
The suit noted the wording in the two California laws “is too vague and gives California officials too much power to police speech they disagree with,” according the ADF release.
ADF attorneys filed The Babylon Bee v. Bonta with the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.
To read full ADF release, click here.
