With the 2025 midterm election coming up, the rapid rise of election-related misinformation and disinformation using Artificial intelligence (AI) in the Philippines has been alarming, especially since the country is not new to targeted disinformation campaigns in social media or 'troll warriors' that have existed since the 2016 general elections and played part in the 2022 elections.
Why did COMELEC implement stricter digital campaign guidelines?
After COMELEC Resolution No. 11064 took effect on September 26, 2024, strict rules regarding the use of social media, AI, and internet technologies for digital campaigning for the 2025 midterm elections and BARMM parliamentary elections have been implemented.
To help them monitor and enforce the new AI guidelines, COMELEC established a 'multistakeholder task force' composed of government agencies, civil society organizations, fact-checkers, and academics.
The rules of the resolution do not only apply to electoral candidates and political parties but also to technology platforms and social media companies that host political content that may use AI in promoting a particular group or person.
How is AI in elections becoming a global crisis?
The sudden increase of AI-related disinformation does not only happen in the Philippines; there are other countries, specifically in Asia, also struggling with the spread of fake news during the campaign and election period.
In Indonesia, 28% of survey respondents have been 'duped' due to a deepfake of Prabowo Subianto delivering a speech in Arabic, according to a survey conducted by the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute and Lembaga Survei Indonesia.
In India, during their national elections in June 2024, AI-generated disinformation was predominantly 'voice clones' or 'voice morph,' a cheap way to produce false and fabricated content, according to an India-based organization BOOM.
However, aside from the surfacing problem of AI misuse, the Philippines is also facing two of the biggest problems of the country: low digital literacy and profitable operations.
According to a Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey last 2022, 51% of respondents could not identify which is a true claim and found it difficult to spot disinformation.
In the Philippines, the nature of operations related to disinformation in the country is a 'profitable and well-protected enterprise' due to the backing of political machines seeking their services.
The COMELEC’s list of violations when posting online digital contents
Under the COMELEC resolution, there are several actions that will be considered violations of election law, including the use of "false amplifiers", such as fake accounts and bots to spread disinformation and misinformation in endorsing or campaigning against a candidate, a political party/coalition or party-list organizations, or to propagate disinformation and misinformation targeting the Philippine election system, the COMELEC and electoral processes during the election and campaign period.
Coordinated inauthentic behavior and utilization of hyperactive users for the above mentioned purposes and creation and dissemination of deepfakes, cheapfakes and soft fakes are also tagged as violations.
Aside from these, the dissemination of fake news and content produced through AI technology but without compliance with the transparency and disclosure requirements can also be considered illegal.
Notions to help prevent the spread of information disorders due to AI
According to COMELEC, the following are ways to not violate the enacted guidelines and to avoid the additional spread of 'fake news', which includes technology platforms and providers preparing systems to comply with COMELEC takedown requests and enhance monitoring for violations related to AI, bots, and disinformation on various platforms.
The candidates and political parties must register all digital campaign platforms, including social media accounts and websites, with the COMELEC and disclose a warning if ever AI is used in campaign materials, and include clear, visible disclaimers.
International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) APAC Vice President Stephen Braim said that DeepFake may be funny and entertaining, but when used in a serious context, it must be flagged as a ‘big problem.’
“Some of the deepfake stuff that gets put on there is quite funny, but it is a real problem…Their deep fakes are used in political advertising and to rip them off as content creators,” he said.
Meaniwhile, Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) Secretary Ivan John Uy stressed that disclaimers are key to promote transparency when using AI.
“So, if they used their AI platform and made a deepfake, there's a watermark. You are viewing a deepfake. Or you're viewing an AI-generated content. So, the public, you can watch it, but there's a warning. There [should be] a watermark,” the DICT chief said.
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