THE government’s Cybercrime Investigation and Coordinating Center (CICC) announced that they are currently investigating reports that reached their office, with regards to an altered photo of former Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) Secretary Benjamin “Benhur” Abalos that became viral in social media.
According to CICC Executive Director Alexander Ramos such moves is what can be dubbed as “cheapfakes.”
The target was the photo of a political banner of Abalos that says “Kalaban ng Kriminal (Enemy of Criminals) Benhur Abalos.”
But the altered photo showed “Kalaban at Kriminal (Enemy and Criminal) Benhur Abalos.”
Ramos warned the public that people who are behind this may be liable under the Commission on Elections (Comelec) Resolution 11064 or the “Guidelines on the Use of Social Media, Artificial Intelligence, and Internet Technology for Digital Election Campaign” promulgated in September.
The said resolution pertains to what was called as “cheapfakes” where it creates a visual disinformation for which authentic images or videos are deliberately re-contextualized to alter their meaning.
The said poll body order said that any individual found guilty of propagating disinformation and misinformation to endorse or campaign against a candidate, party, the Comelec, or the Philippine election system may also be found guilty of violating Section 261 (z) (11) of the Omnibus Election Code.
“Punishable under the law include the creation and dissemination of deepfakes, cheapfakes, and soft fakes for the aforementioned purposes; use of fake and unregistered social media accounts during the election and campaign period for the same purposes; and the creation and dissemination of fake news in furtherance of the aforementioned purposes,” he said.
The CICC is in close collaboration with Comelec as they anticipate social media to be fully utilized for the 2025 national elections.
Likewise, he asked the public to report to the Inter-Agency Response Center (IARC) Hotline 1326 for any deepfakes, cheapfakes, or disinformation related to the coming elections.
