You realize that a very small minority of the overall population even watches news or pays much attention to it, right? A well-timed fake video could cause a riot, erode trust in institutions, antagonize relationships, and disrupt the social fabric.

It will become even more apparent when the population is primed to believe it, pick your hot button issue of the day and some significant portion of the population would absolutely believe a fake video depicting the opposing party doing something horrible, without pausing to reflect.

Even seemingly harmless caricatures, like Tina Fey's infamous SNL skit of Sarah Palin ("I can see Russia from my house"), have a long term affect on people's perception of reality: http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/59838/1/USAPP_Blog_In_politics_cari...

In that paper a survey found that 7 in 10 Americans believed that Palin actually said that.

The mass production of deep fakes will have a deep and profound impact on society. I'm not keen on where this is heading.