Yesterday, California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) signed two anti-deepfake bills into law that prohibit the distribution of deepfakes related to elections and require social media platforms to label and provide mechanisms to report them. The laws allow victims and politicians to now sue if companies don’t enforce the new regulation.

In reply to a post condemning Newsom's law, which taunts "memes are illegal", Musk writes: "The Joker is in charge," and he also reposts a picture of Newsom alongside the Batman villain.

The bills signed Tuesday marked an effort to preserve the integrity of elections while addressing altered campaign materials that have cropped up on social media.