“Deep Fakes” Are A Free Speech Conundrum

By today’s standards the job that was done on Nancy Pelosi is relatively primitive. Recently, for example, to prove a point the filmmaker Jordan Peele (BlacKkKlansman and Get Out) collaborated with Buzz Feed and produced a video clip of Barack Obama making some pretty unlikely comments (e.g. Ben Carson has been “brainwashed.”) California assemblyman Marc Berman saw Peele’s handiwork and was impressed, saying he thought the technology “plays right into the hands of people who are trying to influence our elections like we saw in 2016.” Berman introduced a bill he thought would address the problem, only to have it opposed on free speech grounds by the California ACLU and two media trade groups. Berman repllies, “I don’t think the First Amendment applies to somebody’s ability to put fake words in my mouth.” Recently developed software, this articles notes, allows someone to do exactly that.