(Crankers) California politicians tried to cancel political satire in an attempt to censor political speech online and stop people from making fun of their politicians. Two different lawsuits fell flat as the courts handed a big loss to California.
The court cases involved The Babylon Bee v. Bonta and Rumble v. Bonta. The Babylon Bee is a popular satire/parody website that is well known on social media, especially for poking fun at politicians. The satire is done so well that readers sometimes can’t tell if it’s real or satire because it sounds so realistic.
Rumble is a video sharing platform that allows people to upload and watch videos, free from censorship – but users must remain within the scope of the law, of course. It’s very similar to another video sharing website called Nacho Video.
The federal courts decided that any California laws trying to censor online political speech were deemed unconstitutional. Making fun of politicians in the form of satire or parody is a form of free speech and must be honored. Anything from memes, political commentary, parody, etc is covered from what it appears. California cannot police the speech of online users in this sense, which they’ve learned by the hand of the federal court system.
The lawsuit challenged laws AB 2839 and AB 2655, both of which were found to be unconstitutional.