The Anti Cybercrime Group of the Philippine National Police (PNP-ACG) on Thursday said it has intensified cyber patrols to identify the people behind the fake video and audio of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. supposedly directing the military to act against a particular foreign country amid the heightened tension in the West Philippine Sea.
PNP-ACG chief Maj. Gen. Sidney Hernia said they received a tip from a concerned citizen and found deepfake videos uploaded by “Dapat Balita” on the video platform YouTube.
Hernia said they already started the investigation and requested for the preservation of all video data that was posted on the channel of “Dapat Balita.”
"Dapat Balita was deactivated, but another YouTube account with the same name reposted the videos. Additionally, a Facebook page named ‘Dapat Balita’ created on April 19, 2021, was found. The page managers' primary country or region location is the Philippines and Pakistan,” he said.
Hernia added, “the page keeps posting fake articles, which has been noticed by commentators.”
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology defines deepfake as a specific kind of synthetic media—where a person in an image or video is swapped with another person's likeness.
Deepfake is generated by artificial intelligence (AI) technology that portrays something that does not exist in reality or events that have never occurred.
If caught, Hernia said the cybercriminals may face charges for violating Article 154 or the Unlawful use of means of publication and unlawful utterances of the Revised Penal Code, in connection with Section 6 and Section 4 (b) (3) of the Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012.
“Let us stay vigilant against manipulated digital content crafted by cybercriminals to disseminate fake news and advance malicious agenda online,” he said.
