It irks me when rich people will just pay the fine rather than following the law. Example: Parking in handicap spots and not caring about a $250 fine. It is like paying $5 parking fee for low income drivers.
Finland actually has speeding fines proportional to your income! In 2002, a Finnish millionaire was fined €103,000 (over $100,000 USD at the time) for going 75 km/h in a 50 km/h zone. (47mph in a 32mph zone)
Oh so a first amendment violation as a law.
You thoughtless person, where’s the disclaimer?! I dislocated a rib laughing at this
It actually sounds sane, but no, won’t pass 1A muster in any court.
- The law applies only to office holders, candidates, campaigns, or to people who buy or sell political advertising.
- People and platforms who post and distribute content without exchanging money are exempted.
- All the big media firms: tv, radio, ISPs, Internet content platforms, and billboard operators are exempted when they just run someone else’s ads. The people who are liable are the ones who place the ads.
- The requirement is to include a disclosure message when depictions of a public figure have been altered by technology: Photoshop, AI, deepfake audio, or whatever else. The content itself is not censored, it just has to be noticed that it’s artificial.
- “Superficial” alterations are exempted from the notice message, for example, changing the color balance on a video.
Hard to say for sure, but probably more “fine print” style notices on TV ads and billboards.
This could conceivably be used to prosecute dirty tricks-style campaigns. For example, many years ago there was an anonymous mailer campaign against the incumbent mayor in my city where a photograph of him was photoshopped to insinuate that had been beaten up, when he really hadn’t. That kind of thing might become the target of this if it becomes law.
It’s also possible that federal courts will step in and carve out some exceptions for obviously fake parody stuff. Texas law cannot override the first amendment.
I’ll say it until I’m dead: fines need to be calculated by income and net worth, increasing exponentially. The only way for a fine to act as a deterrent is for it to cost more relative to a person or company’s ability to pay it.
Come at me bro!
