The Presidential Community Communications Office (PCO) has issued a public warning
In a frightening incident, a fabricated audio clip of Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. instructing his military to respond to China has raised alarm among Manila government officials. They warn that this could have consequences for the country's foreign policy.
The doctored audio features a deep fake voice of Marcos Jr., in which he reportedly signals his military to intervene if China poses a threat to the Philippines. He added that he cannot tolerate further harm to Filipinos by Beijing.
Deepfake technology involves the use of artificial intelligence to replace aspects of a person's appearance or voice with that of another individual in synthetic media.
“We can't even put a single individual at risk just to protect what rightfully belongs to us,” says the voice in the spoofed audio, which was reportedly released through a YouTube channel with thousands of subscribers. The audio was accompanied by a slideshow of photos of Chinese ships in the South China Sea South China Morning Mail reported.
On Tuesday evening, the Presidential Community Communications Office (PCO) issued a public warning about the manipulated media and confirmed that it was completely fake.
“It has come to the attention of the Presidential Communications Office that video content has been posted on a popular video streaming platform circulating online that has manipulated audio designed to sound like President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jnr,” the PCO said in a statement.
“The audio deepfake attempts to make it appear as if the President has ordered our Armed Forces of the Philippines to act against a certain foreign country. Such a guideline does not exist and has not been drafted,” it added.
The PCO said it is actively working on measures to combat fake news, disinformation and disinformation through its Media and Information Literacy Campaign.
“We are also coordinating and working closely with government agencies and relevant private sector stakeholders to actively address the proliferation and malicious use of video and audio deepfakes and other generative AI content,” the report said.
