Comelec, DICT urged to act on ‘deep fakes’
The Commission on Elections (Comelec) and the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) have been urged to monitor and take down artificially generated “deep fakes” that could spread during the election season.
Camarines Sur Rep. Luis Raymund Villafuerte Jr., president of the National Union Party, said that the Comelec and the DICT should team up to effectively eradicate deep fakes during the election period of Jan. 12 to June 11, 2025, because they could adversely affect candidates.
“The Comelec and the DICT, through its [Cybercrime Investigation and Coordinating Center (CICC)], need to work closely together on a system for AI (artificial intelligence) safety that can effectively monitor and take down deepfakes posted online between now and May 2025 to extol or vilify particular candidates,” Villafuerte said.
“Now that we know everyone who is running in the next elections in May 2025, the government needs to come up soon enough with an efficient way of monitoring and taking down of illegal campaign materials posted online, considering that Comelec, DICT and CICC themselves have publicly fretted about the likely spread of politically related AI content designed to spread misinformation and disinformation about specific poll bets.”
The period for the filing of certificates of candidacy for around 18,000 elective positions nationwide just ended last week.
Commission on Elections Chairman George Erwin Garcia along with other officials, discusses terms of reference of the Automated Election System that will be used in the 2025 National and Local Elections during a news briefing at the Comelec Session Hall in Palacio del Gobernador, Intramuros, Manila.
INQUIRER PHOTO / NINO JESUS ORBETA
Already in the rules
Villafuerte noted that the Comelec released last month a resolution covering the guidelines on “the use of social media, artificial intelligence and Internet technology, for digital election campaign and the prohibition and punishment of its misuse for disinformation and misinformation in connection with the 2025 national and local elections and the BARMM elections.”
The Comelec’s Resolution 11064 requires AI users to make a full disclosure of their use of such technology in their online election campaign materials; provides the taking down or blocking of poll-related information online that use AI tools but were not properly disclosed by their producers or distributors; and penalizes the misuse of such materials as an election offense under the Omnibus Election Code.
“We hope that the new guidelines released by the Comelec would guarantee the rational regulation of poll-related audio, visual or audiovisual materials produced through AI technologies, including the prohibition of deepfakes designed to defame or falsely extol particular candidates running for public office in the 2025 elections,” Villafuerte said.
Order of listing raffle
In a related development, the Comelec on Sunday said 156 party list groups will be included in the raffle that will determine the order of listing in the official ballot of the 2025 midterm elections.
The Comelec en banc promulgated Resolution No. 11074 on Oct. 11, identifying the 156 groups eligible to participate in the electronic raffle at 9 a.m. on Oct. 18.
Of the number, 113 are existing party list groups, 42 are newly registered organizations and one, which secured a temporary restraining order from the Supreme Court.
Also on Sunday, the poll body extended the filing of petitions to declare a political aspirant a nuisance candidate.
“The Commission en banc approved the extension of the deadline for the filing of Petitions Against Nuisance Candidates from Monday, Oct. 14 2024, to Wednesday, Oct. 16 2024, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.,” the Comelec said.
The poll body said the deadline was extended because of the suspension of work on Oct. 14 and Oct. 15 for the Asia-Pacific Ministerial Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction.
