THE Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) through its Cybercrime Investigation and Coordinating Center (CICC) is drafting guidelines regulating deepfakes — artificially generated images, videos, or audio meant to deceive consumers of media.
“We are now working on some guidelines on the reporting mechanism for this. But the tools we have acquired are for distribution,” Undersecretary and CICC Executive Director Alexander K. Ramos told reporters on the sidelines of a cybersecurity conference on Tuesday.
Mr. Ramos said the government has established a national deepfake task force to help develop industry standards for content creation, distribution, and labeling of manipulated media like deepfakes.
This task force will comprise representatives from government agencies, technology companies, media organizations, educational institutions, and civil society.
Mr. Ramos said the government has procured software to aid the task force in detecting deepfakes.
“It allows real-time detection of deepfakes with 95% accuracy,” Mr. Ramos said.
The DICT has warned that it is expecting to see increased cyberattacks this year as threat actors are expected to take advantage of emerging technologies ahead of the 2025 midterm elections.
He said the policy on deepfakes could be issued within the month, with guidelines to be aligned with the Commission on Elections (Comelec) campaigning rules.
Comelec has “an En Banc resolution to address this content. We are aligning with that,” he said.
“Before the end of the month, it is fully operational. The whole monitoring system, the whole policy, would be in place. We are building right now the central database.”
Ronald B. Gustilo, a national campaigner for Digital Pinoys, welcomed the plan, saying his group has been advocating rules to address deepfakes.
“For the policy guidelines to be effective, the government should consider drafting a clear definition and legal framework to define deepfakes and their malicious use, distinguishing between harmless digital content and those intended for deception, fraud, or misinformation. This will help establish legal accountability,” Mr. Gustilo said via Viber. — Ashley Erika O. Jose