MANILA — The Philippines' Commission on Elections (Comelec) said on Monday that it currently depends on partnerships with social media platforms to combat election-related disinformation, in the absence of a specific law governing artificial intelligence (AI) and online campaigning.

Ma. Anne Tonette S. Rivera, legal head at the Office of the Comelec Chairperson, said the commission has partnerships with Meta, TikTok and X that allow it to request the removal of posts containing fake news or other election-related violations. Platforms typically act on these takedown requests within 24 hours, she said. In practical terms, that places day-to-day enforcement of campaign-content rules in the hands of private companies rather than the election body itself.

“We were able to have a memorandum of agreement and commitment from various social media technologies so that they can regulate and police the private use of AI,” Ms. Rivera added.

Comelec currently requires candidates and political parties to register their official social media pages, a measure that lets the commission distinguish legitimate accounts from pages impersonating candidates or political parties, Ms. Rivera said. The registration system also helps the commission identify the legitimate source of campaign information and allows it to seek the removal of content from accounts that are not registered with the body.

Lanao del Sur Rep. Ziaur-Rahman A. Adiong, who heads the House Committee on Suffrage and Electoral Reforms, said the arrangement nonetheless leaves a gap, as Comelec cannot directly regulate accounts created specifically to spread disinformation.

“That is where gaps occur,” Mr. Adiong said in Filipino, pointing to accounts created solely to disseminate disinformation and the reliance on platforms such as Meta to enforce their own guidelines. The gap carries weight in a country where social media is a primary channel for political campaigning, and at a time when generative AI tools have made fabricated images, audio and video cheaper and easier to produce.

Election watchdog Legal Network for Truthful Elections said regulation should focus on transparency rather than content, warning that broadly worded laws on false content could result in censorship. The group proposed mandatory disclosure of AI use, paid political advertising and campaign financing, as well as the registration of all accounts used in digital campaigns. Whether Congress moves to legislate on AI in campaigning — and how consistently platforms act on future takedown requests — are the developments to watch as the current framework is tested in practice. — Pexcel John Bacon