MANILA – The Commission on Elections (Comelec) will regulate and prohibit the misuse of social media and artificial intelligence (AI) for the 2025 national and local elections (NLE).
According to the Comelec en banc chaired by Commissioner George Garcia, they have already set the guidelines for the use, prohibition, and punishment of the misuse of the technologies for digital campaigning for the upcoming polls.
The Task Force sa Katotohanan, Katapatan, at Katarungan (KKK) sa Halalan, led by the Comelec Education and Information Department (EID), will spearhead the implementation of the election campaigning rules and will monitor, detect, and receive reports of purported misuse.
“All candidates, parties, and their campaign teams are mandated to register all of their official social media accounts and pages, websites, podcasts, blogs, vlogs, and other online and internet-based campaign platform before the EID within 30 calendar days after the filing of certificates of candidacy (COC), or until December 13, 2024,” the poll body said.
The Comelec taskforce will then review the applications and endorse it for approval or denial to the Commission en banc and approved registration will be published on the Comelec’s official website and social media accounts.
Meanwhile, Comelec also required all candidates and parties to issue disclosure for all election and campaign paraphernalia created using AI.
“The disclosures and disclaimers shall be clear, conspicuous, and not easily removed or altered, must remain visible or audible for a sufficient duration both before and after the campaign material is presented,” the Comelec said.
It added that it should explicitly state that the content has been manipulated using AI, and should include a detailed explanation of the nature and extent of the manipulation, as well as an official statement confirming that all individuals depicted in the manipulated election material were consented.
“Any entity involved in distributing synthetic election-related media is also required to ensure that the media contains the necessary disclosures and disclaimers as mandated,” the resolution reads./PN
