California Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom made headlines last year when he signed a law banning digitally altered political "deepfakes" after Elon Musk shared a video of former Vice President Kamala Harris.

Yet Musk was vindicated earlier this week after a federal judge moved to strike down the controversial legislation. 

Law found to violate Section 230 of the federal Communications Decency Act

According to Politico, the contested law sought to prohibit online platforms from hosting deceptive, AI-generated content related to an election.

However, U.S. District Judge John Mendez ruled that it violates Section 230 of the federal Communications Decency Act, which shields platforms from liability for content which is posted by users.

"They don’t have anything to do with these videos that the state is objecting to," the judge was quoted as saying of social media companies such as X.

The video of Harris was created by Christopher Kohls, who challenged the law on First Amendment grounds, a move which was supported by Rumble along with the conservative satirical website Babylon Bee.

Judge says that another law requiring labels on election ads is unconstitutional

Yet Mendez stressed that he was "simply not reaching that issue" as the Section 230 conflict provided sufficient reason to invalidate the legislation.

Elon Musk and X notch court win against California deepfake law https://t.co/miaUZvs4Be

— POLITICO (@politico) August 6, 2025

Nevertheless, Mendez did indicate that he will strike down a second challenged law as being unconstitutional. The legislation in question mandates the use of warning labels on digitally altered campaign materials and ads.

Tara Gallegos serves as spokesperson for Newsom, and she told Politico that the governor is "convinced that commonsense labeling requirements for deep fakes are important to maintain the integrity of our elections."

News poll shows that Musk's favorability rating has gone down by 10 points

While Musk may have won in court, the Daily Mail reported this week that a recent survey suggests he is losing when it comes to public opinion.

Carried out by Gallup between July 7 and July 21 among 1,002 adults, it found that just 33% of respondents had a favorable view of him.

This makes for a marked change from the results of an earlier poll that was conducted between January 21 and January 27, which put his favorability total at 43%.

Meanwhile, President Donald Trump's favorability number stood at 41%. Although the president has also seen his positive rating decline, the drop was less sharp, going down by seven percentage points instead of 10.