☀️ Happy Thursday! The Briefing is your guide to the world of news and information. Sign up here!
In today’s email:
- Featured story: Judge strikes down California law restricting AI deepfake content during elections
- In other news: CPB to shut down
- Looking ahead: New York Post announces plans to launch California version
- Chart of the week: Most Americans are concerned about people getting inaccurate info from AI
🔥 Featured story
A federal judge this week struck down a California law that restricted AI-generated video content, also known as deepfakes, related to elections. Elon Musk and X were part of the challenge to the law, which required social media companies to remove this type of content within 72 hours of it being reported. But federal judge John Mendez ruled that this violates Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act – a key provision that protects online platforms from liability for what users post on their sites.
About half of Americans (51%) say the U.S. government should take steps to restrict false information online, even if it limits freedom of information, while a larger share (60%) say tech companies should take such steps, according to a March 2025 survey. But Americans have become slightly less likely since 2023 to favor both kinds of restrictions on false information online.
📌 In other news
- Corporation for Public Broadcasting to shut down after Congress defunds it
- Voice of America director fired after turning down reassignment
- Rupert Murdoch’s deposition delayed in Trump lawsuit against WSJ
- What Trump’s firing of BLS commissioner means for data integrity
- Journalist in country of Georgia imprisoned for two years for slapping police chief during protest
- Wikipedia editors adopt policy to control AI-generated articles on the website
- A look at the type of news content found on TikTok
📅 Looking ahead
The New York Post recently announced plans to launch a new daily newspaper based in Los Angeles, which will be called the California Post and debut in early 2026.
A large majority of Americans (78%) say they have heard of the New York Post, according to a Center survey from March, and 9% regularly get news there – including similar shares of Republicans (10%) and Democrats (8%). But on the whole, U.S. adults are more likely to say they distrust the New York Post as a source of news (26%) than trust it (16%).
📊 Chart of the week
This week’s chart comes from a Center analysis of how Americans view AI’s impact on news and journalists. About two-thirds of U.S. adults (66%) are extremely or very concerned about people getting inaccurate information from AI. An additional 26% are somewhat concerned, while just 7% are not too or not at all concerned.
👋 That’s all for this week.
The Briefing is compiled by Pew Research Center staff, including Naomi Forman-Katz, Jacob Liedke, Christopher St. Aubin, Luxuan Wang, Emily Tomasik, Joanne Haner, and Mary Randolph. It is edited by Michael Lipka and copy edited by Rebecca Leppert.
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