MALACAÑANG said digital media experts have found that the viral video showing a man looking like President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. using drugs had been faked.
Presidential Communications Office (PCO) Secretary Cesar Chavez said over the weekend that artificial intelligence experts from the Deepfakes Analysis Unit (DAU), which is part of the India-based Misinformation Combat Alliance, found the video to have been extensively manipulated to make it appear that the man in the video was the President.
The video was released in July during a gathering of Filipinos in Los Angeles, California, ahead of Marcos’ third State of the Nation Address.
Several government agencies, such as the Department of National Defense (DND) and Philippine National Police (PNP) have previously tagged the video as fake.
The findings of DAU was corroborated by Vera Files, an independent and award-winning social media unit and one of the country’s leading fact checkers.
In an extensive report published last September 16 and written by Celine Isabelle Samson and Bryan Daniele Manalang, the Vera Files said that it sent copies of the video to an India-based misinformation advocate.
The PCO added that the DAU found traces of extensive digital manipulation on what is now known as the “polvoron video.” Using a tool called SensityAI, the DAU found that a “face swap” was used in manipulating the video.
Using another tool called HIVE, the international misinformation advocates “found multiple points of manipulation in the video’s run-time and where the “no-deepfake and the deepfake manipulation overlapped.”
“In today’s world of trolls, bots, and deepfake manipulation, it has become easy to throw mud at others,” Chavez said.
He reminded the public to be wary of malicious videos and social media posts.
Chavez also gave assurances that there will be no letup in the government’s fight against misinformation and disinformation.
He urged all law enforcement agencies to ramp up their drive against fake news and harmful online posts.
