It's become increasingly common to start off articles with an image, even when the article is describing an abstract concept, just to avoid having a "wall of text." If that's what you need to do, it seems like a more interesting alternative to clip art.
If a click generates a deepfake that causes someone to commit suicide, it might be considered lethal in some jurisdiction.
A is a mentally healthy person living a fulfilling life. Will watching a disturbing deepfake affect A severely enough to cause them to commit suicide? No.
B leads a life of extreme isolation and faces troubling financial difficulties. They come across a deepfake that pushes them over the edge at the wrong time and they give up on their life. Is the deepfake to blame? Or were there more important factors that we could’ve focused on to save B and potentially thousands of others.
And since we’re discussing the unintended consequences of deepfakes, let’s not forget that a carefully crafted one can even save lives hypothetically.
Imagine - you could convince a parent that their child has died. Show them photographic evidence. I don’t know how close to the edge they’d need to be.
I can think of lots of malicious things it can be used for.