The state of California agrees with you, but many other US states explicitly criminalize drawn NSFW depictions...

How is that not a 1A violation?

a cartoon is clearly fiction. videos depicting real, notable people in real contexts can't be immediately dismissed as such.

So what? Is satire that can't immediately be identified as such no longer allowed? Since when does an expression have to be "clearly fiction" to be protected speech?

What do you do if it ruins your life on the way to getting your day in court? If you get fired, your employer won't be forced to rehire you, and they are likely protected from any retaliation against you because they were acting in good faith. You aren't going to sue in civil court and get financial restitution from an underage kid or someone with no assets worth seizing. You still lose in either case.

If a deepfake on the internet can get you fired, you need a better employer, or a better contract with your employer, because the actions of third parties outside of your control should not affect your employment relationship. More importantly, your employer should recognize and understand that fact.

That's a consequence of living in a free society. The law does not get involved until after the fact anyway, so what protections would you be seeking? Laws don't stop people from taking action, they only provide consequences for those actions.

if i animate you saying "i fucked a goat", i will be considered deranged. if i make a deepfake of you saying "i fucked a goat", i could accuse you of bestiality, lie in court and maybe even get away with it.

edit: maybe i was a bit too rude. my memory was fresh with deepfakes used for scams, i get ads like that daily, then i remembered these: https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/ai-presidents-gaming-biden-an... - and i kinda get where you're coming from now. i still believe there should be _at least some kind of_ regulation (because the platforms themselves they won't remove anything as long as it keeps users on), not for opinions but for non-facts, but then that's another problem and it is: do we trust the enforcers to enforce properly?

Spreading damaging falsehoods intentionally and knowingly is already legally actionable. Lying in court is already a crime.

We don’t need additional laws criminalizing the production of content.

"Your honor, all those counterfeit $20's I made are clearly protected under free speech."

If you are trying to commit fraud, there's already laws about that. It's not illegal to produce replica money btw, so long as you don't try to use it in commerce (there must be intent to deceive).

Counterfeit money is intended to deceive and defraud. Producing artistic works of fiction is very clearly an act of expression, not an attempt at fraud.

they're called deepfakes for a reason.