Elon Musk has responded to California Governor Gavin Newsom's threat of legal action over the use of memes and deepfakes, accusing Newsom of trying to outlaw parody following the signing of laws restricting AI-generated political content.

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.

Under a pioneering law set to be implemented next year, large social media platforms will be obligated to remove deceptive content.