By Ruth Abbey Gita-Carlos
MANILA – The government has partnered with the telecommunication companies (telcos) for a “unified dashboard” that will be launched next month to ramp up the fight against deepfakes, Information and Communications Technology Secretary Henry Aguda said Wednesday.
Aguda said the telcos are in charge of the technical design of the dashboard framework, while the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC), the Cybercrime Investigation and Coordinating Center (CICC), and the National Privacy Commission (NPC) will oversee the policy and regulatory pronouncements.
“This month, matatapos ‘yung aming final design. Next month, i-implement na po natin. Magkakaroon kayo ng matinding experience na mababawasan ‘yung mga iyan (This month, our final design will be finished. Next month, we will implement it. You will have a great experience that will reduce those things),” he said in a Palace press briefing.
He said the dashboard will enable the government and the telcos to monitor and get rid of the Internet Protocol (IP) address associated not just with deepfakes but with pornography sites.
“Ang usapan namin sa kanila, kapag nagbigay kami ng IP address o kaya domain, immediately tanggal. Hindi lang ‘yun, mahirap kasi may wait time ka. Pagka kasi after a day mo siya tanggalin, damage done na (Our negotiation with them is that if we give an IP address or domain, it will be removed immediately. Not only that, it’s difficult if you have a wait time. If you remove it the following day, the damage is already done),” Aguda said.
“Makikita namin lahat doon in real time ‘yung mga site na nai-report na illegal. Makikita din sa dashboard ng mga telco din at makikita namin ‘yung oras kung kailan nila tinanggal (We will see all the sites that have been reported as illegal there in real time. It will also be visible on the telcos’ dashboard and we will see the time when they removed it),” he added.
Aguda said the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) will also be holding a meeting with leading social media platforms on Thursday, as part of the intensified efforts to detect and counter deepfakes.
He said the DICT will be briefed about geo-blocking, a technology that restricts access to online content based on geographical location.
He said the practice is one way of managing contents on social media, preventing the proliferation of deepfake manipulation.
“Ang tawag po sa mekanismo na ‘yun, geo-blocking, geolocking. ‘Yung same mechanism po ng technology na iyan, ‘yun ang sinasabi ko sa mga streaming platform at sa mga social media platform, alam niyo kaya niyo naman iprevent iyan (That mechanism is called geo-blocking, geolocking. The same mechanism of that technology, that’s what I’m saying to streaming platforms and social media platforms, you know, you can prevent that) proactively,” Aguda said.
“I’m confident naman na makikinig sila (that they will listen) tomorrow and in the same process na nag-agree ang mga telco (on telcos, they will also agree) on technical solution, they will also agree on a technical solution.” (PNA)
