Comelec's Jimenez: Integrity pledge bars deep fakes in Eleksyon 2022

The Commission on Elections is expected to hold candidates accountable if they use deep fakes in the their respective campaign ahead of Eleksyon 2022.

In a webinar, Comelec spokesman James Jimenez said the integrity pledge signed by candidates when they filed their certificates of candidacy in October included a section on deep fakes.

"We have an integrity pledge and there is a section that deals specifically with cyber hygiene as well as rejection of the use of misinformation including the use of deep fakes," Jimenez said.

Deep fakes are videos that have been doctored or spliced to make it appear that a particular personality is saying or doing something that he or she didn't actually say or do.

Jimenez said YouTube had been overtaking Facebook as a social media app of choice "and the reason for that is that YouTube is full of fake news."

"YouTube is actually where a lot of people get the content that they amplify on other social media," Jimenez said.

As regards the Comelec's guidelines on the use of social media, Jimenez said they would include a prohibition on micro targeting.

"There are a lot of initiatives, however, and one of the things that I would like to specifically point out is that  one of the flashpoints for the future problems he is foreseeing is that is the microtargeting," Jimenez said.

"One of the things... in our social media guidelines is actually a prohibition of political candidates from using micro targeting as a means of deciding where to send their posts how to boost or promote their post, so we are closely looking at microtargeting," he added.

Jimenez, however, asked that the public don't expect too much from the guidelines because it lacked a legal framework.

"The Comelec is like really blazing a trail in this respect and the problem with that is when your the first one through the wall you are the one ending up with a bloody face and that is exactly the kind of situation the Comelec is finding itself in," Jimenez said. -Richa Noriega/NB, GMA News