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Posted on 04/30/2025 6:50:10 AM PDT by DFG
The Republican-led Texas House has officially caved to the radical Left’s war on free speech—and shockingly, it’s being spearheaded by none other than the state’s own scandal-plagued former House Speaker Dade Phelan.
On Tuesday, House Bill 366 passed with bipartisan support, making it a potential crime in the state of Texas to share or distribute AI-generated and “altered media”—including political memes—without a government-approved disclaimer on political ads.
According to the bill:
“A person may not, with the intent to influence an election, knowingly cause to be published, distributed, or broadcast political advertising that includes an image, audio recording, or video recording of an officeholder’s or candidate’s appearance, speech, or conduct that did not occur in reality, including an image, audio recording, or video recording that has been altered using generative artificial intelligence technology, unless the political advertising includes a disclosure from the person or another person on whose behalf the political advertising is published, distributed, or broadcast indicating that the image, audio recording, or video recording did not occur in reality.”
Let that sink in: Texas Republicans — yes, Republicans — are now trying to police memes.
The bill makes it a Class A misdemeanor for candidates, officeholders, or political committees to knowingly distribute political ads that use manipulated images, audio, or video—especially if created with generative AI—without an explicit disclosure that the content did not occur in reality. The law applies to any group spending over $100 on such materials and seeks to curb misleading media that could influence elections.
Under the bill, the Texas Ethics Commission will define the specific formatting for these required disclosures. However, media platforms and service providers like internet hosts, broadcasters, and billboard owners are exempt from liability.
If signed into law, the legislation will take effect on September 1, 2025.
(Excerpt) Read more at thegatewaypundit.com ...
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In every country in the world, everyone is always free to go to a public park, stand on a soapbox and say “I love our government!” I bet you can do that in North Korea as easily as you can it in New York or Texas.
Our First Amendment is supposed to allow us a bit more freedom than just saying the stuff our government wants us to say.
Why does this coming from a Texas Republican surprise anyone? This state is a microcosm of our Federal legislature.
I don’t know that I’m all that upset about making it harder to show someone doing or saying something that they didn’t do or say. Or at least having to disclose that it isn’t real. Like, maybe it would not have been the end of the world after Adam Shiftless stood in front of Congress and read a script purporting to be a conversation between Trump and Zelenskyy, if he had had to say “by the way, I just made every word of that up out of my head—he never said that or anything like it”. Just maybe not such a terrible thing.
I am a strong believer in free speech, but im a bit split on this one. It refers to AI memes where the person in the meme is voice overed to make it look like they said something they never said. You would be surprised how many people over at Occupy Democrats believe every thing they see in a meme. As of today, you can generally spot these if you look at the mouth moving, but they will get better. It really isnt tough to have a video of Trump walk past a Black politician and say “Damn blacks always smell so bad”.
That was my first thought.
My second thought was that eventually it will be enforced against sarcasm and mockery memes and dramatizations by far-left ( think Soros) law enforcement and prosecutors, and secretly politically selected judges and juries in the big cities. (think Tom DeLay and Sen. Hutchison prosecutions)
And they play the “judicial system” and “justice dept” more relentlessly, shamelessly, and better than we do.
Yeah. This one doesn’t really trouble me.
I get the “slippery slope” argument, but this will help reduce mostly left-wing blatant propaganda efforts.
That pic is setting off my ped0gheydar
I agree with this legislation.
Blame conservatives. They had their chance to take him out in the primary. I would have voted for the democrat in November.
“Why does this coming from a Texas Republican surprise anyone? This state is a microcosm of our Federal legislature.”
It’s actually much worse because voters don’t pay enough attention.
An American and a Russian are talking about their governments.
The American says, “In America, I can say I don’t like the American President.”
The Russian says “Is same in Russia, I too can say I don’t like American President!”
WTH is wrong with Texas.
A Conservative State Run By RINOS!
I don't see anywhere in there or even a footnote that says ok to abridge what I don't like or what I don't believe or even what is not true.
When a person or group of persons take it upon themselves to do just that, the men that signed the paper called it tyranny.
A few years ago there was a state politician in one of the Carolinas who was advocating for liberal Democrats to pose as conservative Republican candidates in order to steal elections for the left. She proposed calling them something like “super secret” candidates.
In recent memory, is there any Democrat who has broken ranks with the hard core policies of the Demmunist Party USA?
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