CICC to monitor those using poll deepfakes

The Cybercrime Investigation and Coordinating Center (CICC) said it will monitor the use of artificial intelligence (AI) and deepfakes in the 2025 midterm elections.

“The public will be misled by a lot of content, and it will be difficult to determine what is true and what is not,” CICC Director Alexander Ramos said in a news forum.

“Right now, we have sufficient technology to look at it,” Ramos added.

Earlier, the Department of Information and Communications Technology identified deepfakes as one of the major threats to next year’s elections.

On Wednesday, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) released guidelines on digital campaigning and the use of AI during the May 2025 elections.

Based on the guidelines, all official social media accounts and pages, websites, podcasts, blogs, vlogs and other online campaign platforms of candidates and parties intending to participate in the 2025 national and local elections should register with the poll body’s Education and Information Department.

All election propaganda and campaign materials that utilize AI technology will be required to disclose the fact of its use, and appropriate technology will be employed to identify its authenticity and legitimate source.

The Comelec identified the use of “false amplifiers,” such as fake accounts, bots and astroturf groups filled with fake users to spread disinformation and misinformation in support of or against a candidate, political party, or partylist organization, as one of the prohibited acts.

Other prohibited acts include coordinated inauthentic behavior and the utilization of hyperactive users for these purposes; the creation and dissemination of deepfakes, cheapfakes and softfakes; the use of fake and unregistered social media accounts during the election and campaign period for the same purposes; and the creation and dissemination of fake news to further the aforementioned purposes.