California Attorney General Rob Bonta has penned a letter to major social media and “AI” companies. And Bonta’s not urging them to “do better” on innovation, competition, and the like.
No – the letter is all about “election misinformation.”
It’s becoming almost pathological at this point, but the entire ruling apparatus in the US (and that includes not only officials but also politically and ideologically affiliated media outlets) is hammering in the message of that being an actual “threat to democracy.”
As if the largest companies in the said industries didn’t hear all this already dozens of times, Bonta goes out of his way to repeat the message to Alphabet, Meta, Microsoft, Open AI, Reddit, TikTok, X, and YouTube – (wouldn’t that one fall under the Alphabet category? But Bonta lists the video platform separately).
We obtained a copy of the letter for you here.
California state laws, Bonta writes, prohibit “certain” types of “voter intimidation, deception, and dissuasion.” And that applies to “AI-generated content” (Are we talking memes here as well?)
That’s not explicitly mentioned in Bonta’s letter, which is framed to look like a serious piece of correspondence.
Despite the rules already in place in California, of which these companies must be painfully aware, the AG says, “the big 8” (or 7, depending on how you count) continue to allow misinformation to spread just before an election.
An observer now may observe – given all that we know about the roundabout (if true, unlawful) censorship of the past, detailed in the Twitter Files – could this be one way to exert, or reaffirm pressure ahead of an election, this time publicly?
But one also has to ask oneself – if this kind of letter is now made public – what, taking into account the recent experience, might/must be going on in the shadows?
“I am urging social media and AI companies to understand existing California laws and address the deception that our voters are being exposed to when it comes to their constitutional right to vote,” Bonta writes.
“Those deceptive activities must be better identified and reported to law enforcement — I am fully committed to working with the companies to that end. We cannot allow bad actors, whether foreign or domestic, to continue to threaten the sanctity of our democracy,” the letter goes on.
Not a word is spared for the constitutional right to free speech, though – or “working with the companies” on that.
But what election – or democracy – is credible without access to a plurality of opinion – i.e., without first defending against censorship?
Not something Bonta appears worried about right about now.
