Poll monitor fears possible misuse of AI in 2025 elections
DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / 14 October) – An election monitoring organization expressed concerns that the use of artificial intelligence (AI) by candidates and political parties may affect voters’ behavior in the midterm elections and the first parliamentary elections for the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) on May 12, 2025.
Brizza Rosales, technical and reform consultant of Legal Network for Truthful Elections (Lente), raised the possibility of widespread disinformation weeks leading to election day as candidates would likely use AI as a digital campaign tool.
Rosales spoke Sunday at the “Training on Reporting the 1st BARMM Parliamentary Elections” in Davao City organized by the Media Impact Philippines and the Mindanao Institute of Journalism.
She said that while the Commission on Elections (Comelec) does not ban AI, the poll body treats the misuse of this technology, particularly the “creation and dissemination of deepfakes, cheapfakes, and soft fakes,” as an election offense.
Rosales cited that AI is not covered by Republic Act No. 9006 or the Fair Elections Act of 2001 but, in anticipation of the possible weaponization of the technology in next year’s elections, Comelec issued Resolution No. 11064 last Sept. 17.
The resolution lays down the “guidelines on the use of social media, artificial intelligence, and internet technology, for digital election campaign, and the prohibition and punishment of its misuse for disinformation, and misinformation, in connection with the 2025 National and Local Elections and the BARMM Parliamentary Elections.”
Section 1, Article 5 of the resolution states that the misuse and malicious use of social media, AI technology, and internet technology shall constitute an “election offense” under Section 261 (z) of the Omnibus Election Code if committed “for purposes of propagating disinformation and misinformation to endorse or campaign against a candidate, a political party/ coalition, and partylist organizations, and for propagating disinformation and misinformation against the Philippine election system, the Comelec, and the electoral processes in the Philippines during election and campaign period.”
“Nakikita din po naming yung disinformation and use of AI would penetrate kasi sobrang creative talaga ng pinoy. Pero titingnan din po natin kasi kailangan mabilis din ang pag take down (We also see that disinformation and use of AI would penetrate because Pinoys are very creative. But we also need to look at how fast we can act to take them down),” she said.
She said only candidates and political parties may be penalized for an election offense while influencers and supporters will not face penalties, although their “viral” posts would be removed from social media.
Rosales said there should be dedicated teams to monitor the spread of disinformation on social media.
She acknowledged the important roles of the community of fact-checkers in the Philippines, consisting of the media and other organizations, in countering disinformation on social media, as the Comelec does not engage in fact-checking of malicious propaganda on social media unless the “fake news” pertains to the commission itself.
She said it is also important to monitor social media pages, which are being purchased to spread fake news.
“Pinipilit mahabol pero hindi mo naman makuha. Parang ganun ang pagpuksa ng disinformation pinipilit mo syang habulin pero hindi sya mahahabol so dapat tuloy tuloy lang (Trying to catch up but you cannot catch it. That’s what it’s like to eradicate disinformation, you try to catch up but you cannot catch up, so you should keep going),” she said.
She added that Meta, developer of social media giant Facebook, promptly responds to reports of malicious posts, particularly when these posts go viral.
“Dapat active ang reporting (Reporting must be active),” she said.
The BARMM parliamentary elections, which coincide with the midterm polls, is the first since the region’s establishment in 2019 after the ratification of Republic Act 11054 or the Bangsamoro Law.
BARMM replaced the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao. It is the fruit of 17 years of peace negotiations between the Moro Islamic Liberation Front and the Philippine government, which culminated in the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro in March 2014.
The region initially comprised the provinces of Basilan (except Isabela City), Lanao del Sur, Maguindanao (which is now split into Maguindanao del Norte and Maguindanao del Sur, Sulu and TawiTawi, and Cotabato City.
However, the Supreme Court, acting on a petition against the Bangsamoro Law, has ruled that Sulu should be excluded from BARMM because majority of the voters in the province rejected it during the plebiscite. (Antonio L. Colina IV/MindaNews)
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