Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom expressed outrage after Elon Musk posted a video ad with manipulated speech against Vice President Kamala Harris, but the billionaire responded with mockery.
The video includes scenes with Harris while a voice sounding like hers goes through a set of talking points meant to deride her political past.
‘This is the final straw.’
“I, Kamala Harris, am your Democrat candidate for president because Joe Biden finally exposed his senility at the debate,” said the video. “I was selected because I am the ultimate diversity hire, I’m both a woman and a person of color, so if you criticize anything I say, you’re both sexist and racist!”
Newsom reacted by saying that ads with voice manipulation should be illegal.
“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,” he wrote on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.
Musk responded by ridiculing Newsom with a popular insult.
“I checked with renowned world authority, Professor Suggon Deeznutz, and he said parody is legal in America,” he responded from his official X account.
The video racked up nearly 19 million views after being amplified by Musk and Newsom.
Others criticized Musk, who owns X, for posting the video with manipulated audio that appeared to be contrary to the platform’s terms of use.
“If @elonmusk and X let this go and don’t label it as altered AI content, they will not only be violating X’s own rules, they’ll be unleashing an entire election season of fake AI voice and image-altered content with no limits, regardless of party,” responded Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota.
Musk had previously criticized California Democrats after they passed a law banning schools from informing parents about changes in their children’s gender and sexual orientation choices. The billionaire said he would be moving his companies X and Starlink out of California to Texas over the controversial law.
“Because of this law and the many others that preceded it, attacking both families and companies,” said Musk. “This is the final straw.”
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