This is my fear. Currently, deep-fakes are fun. We share text messages of Donald Trump singing YMCA and everyone has a good laugh. But as you said, we're also a nation that easily falls for conspiracies. Everything from Q-Anon, Moon Landings being faked, and 9/11 being spearheaded by George Bush, Jr. Someone mentioned you can be the next multi-billionaire by creating a cryptographic watermark with validation, which at first sounds good. However, the obvious issue is that those who believe in these conspiracy theories won't trust "cryptographic watermarks".
Basically, anything and everything can be faked. And people will trust what confirms their biases.
Unfortunately, I personally see no solution to deep-fakes. The worms are out of the can, and we now have to question everything we see, which is A LOT to ask of people. Even if governments band together to "ban" deep-fakes, tightly regulating the internet to track deep-fake origins, or a more sinister "1984" approach, you still have the obvious issue that deep-fakes can be created by those who regulate the masses (our governments).
Basically, anything and everything can be faked. And people will trust what confirms their biases.
Unfortunately, I personally see no solution to deep-fakes. The worms are out of the can, and we now have to question everything we see, which is A LOT to ask of people. Even if governments band together to "ban" deep-fakes, tightly regulating the internet to track deep-fake origins, or a more sinister "1984" approach, you still have the obvious issue that deep-fakes can be created by those who regulate the masses (our governments).