MS. OSEÑA-PAEZ: Current developments, presidential directives, accurate and reliable updates straight from the Palace. This is Daphne Oseña-Paez, your Malacañang Insider.

Pag-uusapan natin ang tungkol sa mabilis na pag-unlad ng teknolohiya at ang paglaganap ng deepfake technology. Gamit ang artificial intelligence or AI kaya nang magmukhang totoo ang mga peke na sanhi ng misinformation and disinformation. Anu-ano nga ba ang hakbang para labanan ang patuloy na pagdami ng deepfake? We have with us today the Department of Information and Communications Technology Secretary Ivan John Uy. Good morning, Secretary Uy.

DICT SEC. UY: Good morning, Daphne.

MS. OSEÑA-PAEZ: Nice to have you here, our first broadcast of Malacañang Insider.

DICT SEC. UY: I’m glad to be a “buena mano”.

MS. OSEÑA-PAEZ: Oo nga, salamat. Let’s get straight into our conversation here. What is deepfake? Ano nga ba ang ibig sabihin ng deepfake?

DICT SEC. UY: Deepfake po is a technology tool that is used now to make something appear to be real when it’s not. So it’s often used for voice and for video images where you can replace somebody else’s voice or somebody else’s video image or photo over an existing image.

Deepfake actually has been used for a long-time already in the movies, in the TVs.

MS. OSEÑA-PAEZ: CGI, like that?

DICT SEC. UY: Yes, so computer graphics imaging. So they use it also for …like iyong mga green screen or blue screen where it’s not just the face but it’s also the environment. So you are in a studio but when it appears on TV, you are over a prairie or a mountain or in a forest, but you are not actually. So these are … kumbaga, sabi ng … dati ‘no, ang tawag natin diyan ay special effects. So today, we call it deepfake.

MS. OSEÑA-PAEZ: Nagiging deepfake siya kung iba iyong intention?

DICT SEC. UY: Yes, kung ang intension ay you’re trying to make it appear something that it is not.

MS. OSEÑA-PAEZ: So how do we identify deepfake?

DICT SEC. UY: Well, there are technologies and there are softwares that’s out there ‘no that we can use in order to distinguish between altered images from the original images. And what’s important—but with the use of those technology or those software, you need to actually have a copy of the original one, and then put it into the algorithm so that it will now be able to identify if that image is altered or not.

So in forensics, they use actually those software in order to analyze whether things are authentic or not, using forensics tools. And there are forensics tools that are available out there to distinguish those.

MS. OSEÑA-PAEZ:  Okay. Recently, we’ve seen some high-profile deepfakes that have affected celebrities and even officials. Could you give us an update on any investigation regarding this matter?

DICT SEC. UY: Well, it’s still ongoing, and we’ve identified several of those ‘no. Some of them actually are even being used for marketing purposes. So you see ads taken out on social media purportedly to becoming from a celebrity endorsing a particular product; but that celebrity actually never endorsed that product. So they used the face and they used the video of that celebrity, but actually the words that are coming out are not from that person but it sounds like that person. And then, they endorsed a product that is fake or that is being sold in order to increase its marketability. And we’ve received complaints coming from those celebrities and we relay it to the social media platform informing them that these are fake and that the true celebrities that are there have already submitted their complaints.

So responsive naman, some of the social media platforms, they take it down immediately especially if it’s proven that they are fake.

MS. OSEÑA-PAEZ: Well, we’re always on TV, we’re also quite vulnerable to deepfakes. Anyone can take our image and announce something. Is there anything there that protects us? Especially like you’re an official of the government and some of our officials have been attack. How do you investigate and what can be done?

DICT SEC. UY: Well, we need to probably come up with more responsive and timely policies in order to address this ‘no especially when it comes to matters of national security. I mean, we cannot have a situation where a high government official is suddenly posted on social media announcing that’s a major disaster or an explosion or whatever causing panic to the citizenry, when in fact, that wasn’t the truth.

A lot of responsibility actually falls on the social media platform that delivers, that is the platform empowers this kind of information or misinformation. And other governments have already tried to address that. For example, Malaysia has just come out with the law the requires now social media platforms that are … that has a following of more than eight million are now required to get a license or a permit from the country. And that now puts more control by the country that if the social media platform misbehaves or allows misbehaviors, then they can be imposed with penalties.

MS. OSEÑA-PAEZ: The media company, the social media company?

DICT SEC. UY: The social media company. Now, the problem is, many of the social media companies do not hold office in the country. So some of them only has a … lucky if they have even a skeleton crew ‘no; very often is they operating from abroad.

MS. OSEÑA-PAEZ: That’s not common thing though. You’re in the digital sphere, this is your work, so it’s borderless.

DICT SEC. UY: Yes.

MS. OSEÑA-PAEZ: Yeah, so sometimes, like what if the deepfake that affects our officials and our citizens actually comes from a foreign country. Are there already laws that cross boundaries and territories?

DICT SEC. UY: Well, the ones that are …that have those kinds of rules are those governed by what we call, multinational agreements or international treaties ‘no or conventions. Like for instance, child pornography, so there is an international agreement on child pornography that cuts across all the different jurisdictions. And this kind of approach is very effective because it actually addresses the issue of jurisdiction and addresses the issue of criminal organizations hiding outside the territorial or criminal jurisdiction of the particular country.

Today, with respect to deepfakes, misinformation, there’s none yet. And there are efforts on the part of different countries to find ways and means in order to address this more effectively.

MS. OSEÑA-PAEZ: Interestingly, we already have a law, RA 11930 which is the Anti-OSAEC and CSAEM Act, it’s the production and ownership of, like you said, child pornography but we call it online sexual abuse and exploitation of children. And they cover deepfake and AI but only for minors; and minors are defined 18 and below. So what happens if somebody gets deepfaked for whatever reason and you are over 18? Walang protection ang mga tao?

DICT SEC. UY: For now, the only protection would probably be defamation.

MS. OSEÑA-PAEZ: Cyber libel.

DICT SEC. UY: Cyber libel, defamation. You see, criminal law by its nature is, you know, designed to be interpreted very strictly against the state in favor of the accused. And so, you cannot over expand its definition or its coverage outside of what the law clearly states. And therefore, if it is only covering a certain age group, then that’s really how, where it stays; the court cannot expand its coverage outside of the limits of the law.

MS. OSEÑA-PAEZ: So do you think we need a new law?

DICT SEC. UY: I think so, we need a new law. Actually, I think we need to have a more comprehensive law rather than bits and pieces of legislation that addresses small items or specific items. For instance, you have an anti-scam law; you have an anti-misinformation law; you have anti-deepfake law or something like that. Like for instance, in other countries, they have, for example, Singapore, they have online harm law. So that covers anything. If your conduct online causes harm, whether it’s phishing, scamming, deepfake, misinformation, whatever, then it’s covered under that law.

So, I think, that’s a better way of addressing this whole thing rather than having separate laws that addresses all. We actually have a lot of laws, and it’s very difficult to keep track and to enforce all of them.  So, I think, a more comprehensive approach would be appropriate.

MS. OSEÑA-PAEZ: : Especially since technology moves so fast.

DICT SEC. UY: Yes.

MS. OSEÑA-PAEZ: Kapag sinabi nating anti-deepfake, next year iba na ang tawag nila doon; hindi na deepfake, something else.

DICT SEC. UY: Right, then you have to come up with another law, especially since these are criminal laws. Criminal laws kasi are interpreted very narrowly.  But if you specified that it’s online harm, then I think, that provides more leeway. At the same time, I think there should be a law already to impose penalties on platforms that enable these …

MS. OSEÑA-PAEZ: Where we at with that? Platforms, meaning, mga Facebook, X.

DICT SEC. UY: Social media. Because, you know, they are enablers eh.  

MS. OSEÑA-PAEZ: Oo nga.

DICT SEC. UY: They’re enablers on this. If you would see, for example, AMLC, Anti-Money Laundering, the banks are enablers or financial institutions, and there are penalties that are imposed on them. Even if they are not the criminals themselves, but because they are able to facilitate that criminal activity, there are penalties that are imposed on them. I think, it should be in the same concept, that if you are an enabler of a criminal act, then there should be—so that the burden … because they are in full control of their platform; and countries, governments do not have control over that platform. So, if there is something that goes on there, I think, they should have more responsibility over that.

MS. OSEÑA-PAEZ: That is right. I think, we still have a long way to go beyond the promises and the relationship that we have with our social media platforms that are functioning in.

DICT SEC. UY: Yes, but this concern is now being addressed in many discussions with our regional organizations like ASEAN, EU and even in the United Nations.

MS. OSEÑA-PAEZ: That’s interesting. So more on a regional basis rather than country to country.

DICT SEC. UY: Yes, I think—yeah, it has to because it is cross-jurisdictional; it’s   boundary-less.

MS. OSEÑA-PAEZ: Okay. Well, habang tumatagal, mas nagiging makatotohanan or hyper-realistic na ang ginagawa ng artificial intelligence o AI. So what are the initiatives of the Department of Information and Communications Technology in combating deepfake? We will be right back. Thank you.

[COMMERCIAL BREAK]

MS. OSEÑA-PAEZ: And we are back. This is Malacañang Insider, and with us is Secretary Ivan Uy of the Department of Information and Communications  Technology. Okay, Secretary Uy, marami na yatang mga scams sa Pilipinas, and it’s gotten to the level called “scamdemic”. Isa nga ang deepfake na gumagamit ng generative AI tools. How are we facing this challenge?  Are we ready for this?

DICT SEC. UY: Well, it’s a global concern actually. So, the scams are pervasive all over the world. And, in fact, in the world, what I have seen from the statistics, for instance, Singapore, has the highest per capita loss in terms of scams. It’s on average 5,000 Singapore dollars.

MS. OSEÑA-PAEZ: Loss?

DICT SEC. UY: Per person, in terms of scam. And so during our ASEAN ministerial meetings, we are one in raising this concern all throughout. Thailand has one of the highest scam incidents, number of incidents that’s occurring within the ASEAN region. So, of course, this is a very lucrative criminal activity. Cybercrime has actually surpassed drugs in terms of profitability for the cybercriminals. And so, they are pouring in a huge amount of resources in order to perpetuate their criminal activity on these platforms, on scamming, on phishing, on ransomware and many others; and, of course, they are also using deepfakes.

In many instances, deepfakes are being used commercially in order to generate sales by using celebrity endorsement. In other areas, it’s being used for political gain, especially during elections where they use them to either malign or to discredit certain people by attributing quotations or phrases that are extremely unpopular and then making it appear that that  person uttered those statements. And that becomes even more destructive if, let’s say, they’re released a few days before people cast their ballot so that there is no more time anymore for the real person to say, “I never said that”.

So those are the things that we are seeing. US elections coming up in November, and we are seeing a proliferation on that even in the United States. And it would appear that even a first world country, like the United States, is not really able to nip it or address it completely; there are still things popping up here and there.

MS. OSEÑA-PAEZ: : Okay. You mentioned the elections in the US and we are also starting a campaign season here, ini-expect ba ninyo na magkakaroon din ng mga use of deepfakes and AI sa mga malicious campaign?

DICT SEC. UY: I have no doubt; it will be utilized.

MS. OSEÑA-PAEZ: :So, papaano na?

DICT SEC. UY: You know, elections sometimes can be extremely dirty ‘no.

MS. OSEÑA-PAEZ: Yeah.

DICT SEC. UY: And, you know, there are candidates who will resort to nothing less than full domination ‘no of their quest to be elected, and so they will definitely launch that. That’s why—but they can only launch it on social media platforms. I mean, that’s the platform that gains traction and, again, we go back to my position, that these social media platforms are enablers; they’re the ones who provide this medium for information, as well as for disinformation or misinformation.

MS. OSEÑA-PAEZ: But, Secretary, sometimes the misinformation and disinformation, we don’t see it in social media; it gets passed in those private group chats.

DICT SEC. UY: Yes, like Viber or Telegram, right.

MS. OSEÑA-PAEZ: Viber, Telegram, Signal. Is that governed by, you know, can we protect our people from [unclear]?

DICT SEC. UY: These are called over-the-top ‘no, OTT, over-the-top platforms. These are used for basically private communications, and they are encrypted. So, they are designed to be private communications between one person to another person or between one person to a group of people that are part of that group. And probably, there will have to be a law that will be passed because, first, how will you have access to those platforms? You will have to “wiretap” them because these are private communications. So you go back to the anti-wiretapping law, and seek court orders ‘no in order to be able to do that.

Now, once you’re there, they can claim that this is a private conversation; this is not a broadcasting to the general public and should it be covered by certain rights because this is private and not public.

MS. OSEÑA-PAEZ: So, medyo complicated pala talaga ito. As the DICT chief, anong maa-advise ninyo sa mga nanunood sa atin, you know, how do we protect ourselves na, one, from being fake and, two, from reading and believing fakes?

DICT SEC. UY: Well, we have to be more discerning. We should not be swallowing everything hook, line and sinker. Today, information is so open and so accessible that anybody can be a broadcaster; anybody can be a commentator. Unlike before where broadcasting is limited to those that have the studios and the facilities to broadcast it, today, with the internet, any citizen, any person can become now an opinion maker; they call it a thought leader, and they can produce their own content. And depending on their popularity, they can have the captured audience based on their content.

So, that is the shift ‘no, the paradigm shift brought about by technology called internet. And so governments, legislators, countries are still trying to figure out how to manage and how to navigate this. Sabi nga nila www is not World Wide Web; it’s wild, wild west. It’s something that is unregulated and something that is open and free, which was really the very design of what the internet was supposed to be – open and free. But then now, you’re seeing that this openness and this freedom have led to a lot of good things, but it’s also being exploited by the nefarious actors ‘no that have evil intentions.

MS. OSEÑA-PAEZ: Secretary, are there any warning bells or signals na ‘pag kunyari naka-receive ka ng ano, and it’s like ‘oh, nanalo ako’ you know, parang if it’s true good to be true, malamang hindi siya totoo?

DICT SEC. UY: Yes.

MS. OSEÑA-PAEZ: Can you give some tips to our viewers kung ano ang mga, you know, red flags na parang fake nga?

DICT SEC. UY: Ito ang ginagawa namin ‘no, we’re still working on the software and the platform. What we’re trying to do now is, let’s say, nag-launch tayo ng eGov Super App ‘di ba? So, with that eGov Super App na iyon, gusto namin lagyan ng—kasi mayroon tayong eReport, eReport system where you can report things. We’re trying to integrate some AI into that platform so that when you receive something on your text or whatever, send it now to that eReport system, so the eGov app. And then, ibabangga namin iyan to our database to find out if this is legit or this is a phishing or a scam.

MS. OSEÑA-PAEZ: Iyong mga text na nakukuha natin, dapat iniri-report natin?

DICT SEC. UY: Oo, iri-report sa eGov app.

MS. OSEÑA-PAEZ: Sa eGov, okay.

DICT SEC. UY: We’re still working on that platform. So that there is, kumbaga, a clearing house. So bago kayo sumagot, bago kayo mag-respond, ibato ninyo muna dito, and then sasabihin namin na ‘Teka, you know, marami nang na-scam dito sa ano na ito, so mag-ingat ka, possibleng scam iyan.’ Bahala kana kung sasagutin mo pa rin iyan o hindi.

MS. OSEÑA-PAEZ: Siguro huwag na lang sagutin, kung ano, tawagan ninyo na lang iyong bangko ninyo.

DICT SEC. UY: Yes.

MS. OSEÑA-PAEZ: Di ba para sure na …

DICT SEC. UY: At huwag magki-click doon sa number na iyon. At kung alam ninyo ang account ninyo,  alam ninyo branch ninyo, tumawag kayo doon sa bank manager. Huwag kayong magki-click doon sa pinadala niyang number dahil kargado na iyong number na iyan. So, those are the things, do not believe it immediately; always validate, always verify.

Minsan nakakatanggap iyon …may natanggap kaming report ‘no na isang nanay sa bahay, nakatanggap ng text galing sa anak daw eh na naaksidente, pero hindi pala naaksidente.

MS. OSEÑA-PAEZ: Noong old school, ano iyon.

DICT SEC. UY: Budol-budol.

MS. OSEÑA-PAEZ: Yeah.

DICT SEC. UY: Budol-budol. But dati iyong budol-budol, stranger ang tatawag;  ito, boses ng anak mo or magti-text siya pero ang tawag sa iyo ‘yung tawag ng anak mo.

MS. OSEÑA-PAEZ: Oo nga eh.

DICT SEC. UY: So kung ang tawag sa iyo, mommy dearest, mommy dearest rin, ‘Mommy dearest, nandito ako sa ano,’ at alam kung anong school ka. So sasabihin niya, ‘Oh, nandito ako sa school, ninakaw iyong cellphone ko, nakikigamit ako kaibigan ko, kailangan na kailangan ko ng pera pamasahe,’ or may naaksidente, ‘Magpadala ka ng pera, paki-text na lang dito, paki-Gcash or whatever dito sa number na ito.’

So, when you receive something like that, make sure you call immediately the child to verify kung siya nga iyon. Kasi sabi niya nawala iyong cellphone, ‘pag tinawag mo, sasagot iyong anak ‘Oh, mommy bakit?’ So, always verify, kumbaga, always be suspicious. I think that’s the better term now ‘no, better attitude – be more suspicious.

MS. OSEÑA-PAEZ: Sabi rin nila, create a family secret password, ‘di ba na kayo lang talaga, huwag ninyong isusulat. You do what you can just to protect—and be suspicious and cautious all the time.

DICT SEC. UY: Right, so you have a password that you use in order to validate whether it’s really coming from your anak.

MS. OSEÑA-PAEZ: Okay, right. So are there any other tools that your agency is asking for or critically needs in order to stay ahead and combat cybercrimes, deepfakes and AI?

DICT SEC. UY: Well, we been requesting ‘no for special fund, whatever you want to call it. You know, the criminal organizations are using every means possible in order to scam or to attack, whether the citizens or even government infrastructure. And in many instances, we need to be very agile in the way we respond and current rules on, let’s say, procurement or on providing safe havens for, let’s say, informers. I mean, without those special funds, we will not be able to respond quickly enough to this. And, you know, the cyber criminals move extremely fast – they very, very fast.

So, we are stymied by many of the rules that are inherent ‘no in standard utilization of government funds. So, there are special mechanisms that are available to law enforcement and to security agencies that will allow them better flexibility. And we feel that the DICT is also a security agency because we deal with cybersecurity, and so we need to have that kind of agility because we need to be more agile than the cyber criminals. Otherwise, you know, we cannot the fight the battle where our hands are always tied and theirs are not. It’s a no-win situation.

MS. OSEÑA-PAEZ: You have to stay ahead.

DICT SEC. UY: Yes, we do and we need that kind of support from our legislators in order to be able to effectively address this going threat and going concern ‘no on  criminals, on cyber-attacks that’s happening all over the world.

MS. OSEÑA-PAEZ: That’s right. Well, thank you so much, Secretary Uy, for giving us a rundown on what are the issues that you are facing and how difficult it is, but it’s not impossible.

DICT SEC. UY: Yes.

MS. OSEÑA-PAEZ: Yeah, with technology and investment in new technology.

DICT SEC. UY: And resources.

MS. OSEÑA-PAEZ: Resources.

DICT SEC. UY: Right. Given the proper resources, we have people who are willing to do that. You know, sadly because even salary ‘no, we’ve already had like seven resignations in our cyber security group because they’re pirated by the private sector who pays them double or triple what government pays them. So, how can we now be effective in securing if we cannot afford to keep our people because we are not paying them enough.

MS. OSEÑA-PAEZ:Oh dear, yeah, we hear you. Thank you so much, Secretary Uy.

Mahalaga ang pagiging mapanuri sa mga impormasyong nakikita at naririnig natin online. Through proper education and technology, we can protect ourselves against misinformation.

We bring you in that views of the latest issues and regular Palace updates. I’m Daphne Oseña-Paez, and this was Malacañang Insider. Have a good day. See you on Wednesday.

 

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