Associated Incidents
An "audio deepfake" clip of Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr directing his military to act against China has caused serious concern among government officials in Manila, who have warned that it could affect the country's foreign policy.
In the manipulated audio, the deepfaked voice of Marcos Jnr can be heard saying he has signalled his military to "take action" if China attacks the Philippines, adding he can no longer allow Filipinos to get hurt by Beijing.
A deepfake is synthetic media in which a person's features, such as face or voice, are replaced with someone else's using artificial intelligence.
"We cannot compromise even a single individual just to protect what rightfully belongs to us," says the voice in the faked audio, which was reportedly released via a YouTube channel with thousands of subscribers. The audio was accompanied by a slideshow of photos showing Chinese vessels in the South China Sea.
The clip comes amid growing tensions between Manila and Beijing due to their frequent disputes in the South China Sea.
The Presidential Communications Office (PCO) issued a public warning about the manipulated media on Tuesday night, confirming it was entirely fake.
"It has come to the attention of the Presidential Communications Office that there is video content 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 directed our Armed Forces of the Philippines to act against a particular foreign country. No such directive exists nor has been made," it added.
According to the PCO, it is working on measures to combat fake news, misinformation, and disinformation through its Media and Information Literacy Campaign.
"We are also closely coordinating and working 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," it said.
Ramon Beleno III, head of the political science and history department at Ateneo De Davao University in Davao City, said Beijing and its supporters in the Philippines are unlikely to have been behind the circulation of the fake audio as it was not in their interests to stoke tensions further.
"If something will happen in the West Philippine Sea, who will benefit? Neither the Philippines nor China," he said. The West Philippine Sea is Manila's term for the section of the South China Sea that defines its maritime territory and includes its exclusive economic zone.
The academic urged individuals behind the video or fanning tensions over the West Philippine Sea to stop such actions as they would not help resolve Manila's dispute with Beijing.
"We don't understand why there are people who want trouble. It's not good to elevate the conflict. We have Balikatan now. There are many troops in the contested waters. Maybe we should not agitate the situation," he said.
On Monday, the Philippines and the US kicked off their annual Balikatan joint military exercises involving some 11,000 troops from the US and 5,000 from the Philippines, as well as participants from the Australian and French armed forces.