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The Philippine government has acquired a software tool that can determine in just seconds whether or not a video is deepfake.

In the House tri-committee (tri-comm) hearing on Tuesday, Feb. 4, cybersecurity analyst Marco Reyes of the Department of Information, Communication and Technology (DICT)'s Cybercrime Investigation and Coordinating Center (CICC) said that the agency now has a "tool" that can help law enforcement agencies detect deepfake videos.

What only needs to be done is to install the application, activate it, and run the concerned video through it.

Within 30 seconds, the app can show the results by putting a red X on the lower right portion of the computer screen, if the video is indeed deepfake.
 
"It takes snapshots of the video and detects if it is fake eventually," Reyes said.

Lawmakers on Tuesday held an investigation into cases of cybercrimes and fake news in the country, where Reyes also showed and compared fake videos—and their original copies—that became viral on social media.

Among the videos played were those of Hollywood actor Tom Cruise and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg. 
CICC Executive Director Alexander Ramos said the software could help the government go after scammers.
 
“This is a tool that we can run in computers, and this can detect deepfake videos. This can be installed and it acts as an anti-virus. We can disseminate this to different watchdogs. The more, the merrier. We will have a community of fact-checkers," Ramos said.

Meanwhile, DICT Secretary Ivan Uy told congressmen that the agency was still in the process of acquiring a license software for the application.

"Right now, it’s not a free ware. Maybe we can make it more affordable. We were just the ones who were first to purchase," he added.
 
At the same time, he also called on officials and members of the House of Representatives to craft legislation where there will be no more need for the government to act based on a complainant’s suit, precisely because cybercrimes are committed in just a matter of seconds or minutes. 
 
“I think the law should allow the government to represent people without a private complainant against these cybercriminals. You don’t need a complainant,” Uy said.