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Manila Bulletin devider Philippines devider National devider Villafuerte hails Comelec for TikTok team-up vs poll campaign deepfakes

Villafuerte hails Comelec for TikTok team-up vs poll campaign deepfakes

Published Feb 9, 2025 09:25 pm

At A Glance

  • Camarines Sur 2nd district Rep. LRay Villafuerte says the Commission on Elections (Comelec) deserves praise for teaming up with platforms like TikTok and other government agencies in the bid to flush out deepfakes and other forms of poll-related online disinformation and misinformation in preparation for the start of the campaign period on Tuesday, Feb. 11.

LRayFoto1.jpgCamarines Sur 2nd district Rep. LRay Villafuerte (Rep. Villafuerte's office)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Commission on Elections (Comelec) deserves praise for teaming up with platforms like TikTok and other government agencies in the bid to flush out deepfakes and other forms of poll-related online disinformation and misinformation in preparation for the start of the campaign period on Tuesday, Feb. 11.

Thus, said National Unity Party (NUP) president and Camarines Sur 2nd district Rep. LRay Villafuerte, who has been vocal about the problems that deepfakes and other artificial intelligence (AI)-generated online content can create in connection with the polls.

“In the absence of a new legislation regulating political campaigns on socmed (social media), the Comelec is spot on in taking concrete and timely steps—in tandem with top socmed platform Tiktok, poll watchdogs Namfrel and Lente and the DICT (Department of Information and Communications Technology)—to safeguard election integrity.

 

Villafuerte was referring to the in-app site Philippine Elections Center that the Comelec under its chairman George Erwin Garcia is developing with Tiktok and poll watchdogs  National Citizens’ Movement for Free Elections (Namfrel) and the Legal Network for Truthful Elections (Lente).

This aims to provide Filipino voters with easy access to credible and verifiable election-related information ahead of the May 12 ballot-casting.

 

Villafuerte noted that the Comelec has also partnered with the DICT and other groups like Scam Watch Pilipinas on monitoring election-related information on socmed sites, especially AI-generated content, with the goal of taking down deepfakes and other forms of disinformation and misinformation.

 

Scam Watch is the government’s national citizen arm promoting voter education against cyber fraud.  

 

Villafuerte said, “The Comelec’s partnership with Tiktok props up the poll body’s initiative on raising voter awareness and preventing the spread of disinformation and misinformation in the mid-term elections."

He says the online platform boasts 49 million active Filipino users.

 

Without a new law regulating political campaigning online, Garcia himself stressed that the Comelec’s partnership with Tiktok against fake content was “good news”. This, as the site is the leading socmed platform used by politicians and candidates.

Meanwhile, Tiktok Philippines public policy manager Peachy Paderna told the media that this partnership with the Comelec against cyber content fraud would allow the platform to engage its 49 million users in the country with the right information during the campaign period.

 

This notwithstanding, Villafuerte says that the long-term proposal to better ensure election integrity and transparency in future polls is for the Congress to pass new legislation regulating AI-generated content .

 

He introduced last year House Bill (HB) No. 10567, which aimed to penalize producers or distributors for non-disclosure of deepfakes. It proposes cash penalties ranging from P2 million to P5 million against those who do not make any disclosure in these materials that these were altered with the use of AI or any other similar technology, as well as for those who delete or tamper with such disclosures in these AI-modified voices or images.

 

Related Tags

midterm elections COMELEC TikTok lray villafuerte
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