The Cybercrime Investigation and Coordinating Center (CICC) said it will monitor the use of artificial intelligence (AI) and deepfakes in the 2025 midterm polls.
“The public will be misled [by] a lot of contents na hindi na natin alam kung ano ang magiging totoo at hindi (that they will have a hard time to determine what's true and what's not),” CICC Director Alexander Ramos said during 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 are one of the major threats to next year’s polls.
On Wednesday, 19 Sept., the Commission on Elections (Comelec) released guidelines on digital campaigning and the use of AI for the May 2025 elections.
Based on the guidelines, all official social media accounts and pages, websites, podcasts, blogs, vlogs, and other online and internet-based campaign platforms of candidates, and parties intending to participate in the 2025 national and local elections and parliamentary elections must register with the poll body’s Education and Information Department.
Meanwhile, all election propaganda and campaign materials of candidates and political parties that utilize AI technology will be required to disclose its use, and appropriate technology must 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 propagate disinformation and misinformation, either in endorsing or campaigning against a candidate, a political party/coalition, or party-list organization, to propagate disinformation and misinformation targeting the Philippine election system, as one of the prohibited acts.
Other prohibited acts also include coordinated inauthentic behavior and utilization of hyperactive users for the aforementioned purposes; creation and dissemination of deepfake, cheapfakes, and soft fakes; use of fake and unregistered social media accounts during the election and campaign period for the same purposes; and creation and dissemination of fake news in furtherance of these activities.