AI-manipulated videos and audio have emerged as a growing disinformation tactic ahead of Monday’s midterm elections—more frequent, more targeted and more deceptive. Despite their rise, simpler manipulations, or shallowfakes, remain the more widespread threat, continuing to dominate the misinformation landscape flagged by fact-checkers. Out of 35 unique altered claims identified by partners of the fact-checking coalition Tsek.ph during the Feb....
Documents circulating online that purport to expose a $100-billion money laundering scheme involving the Marcos family’s alleged 350 metric tons of gold are riddled with red flags including references to fictitious banks, dubious account numbers, and formatting anomalies inconsistent with how illicit wealth is typically hidden. Screenshots of the documents accompanied a report that first...
On March 10, 2015, asserting the primacy of human life and safety, the Supreme Court rejected the appeals of the “Big 3” oil companies Shell, Chevron, and Petron to its November 2014 ruling that they stop operations and relocate from the Pandacan Oil Depot in Manila. The oil companies were given six months to pull...
By nature, a short-finned pilot whale is blessed with a long, playful life. If female, it can live up to 60 years. It can find a mate at the age of 9, give birth at 10, keep calving one at a time until it’s 40, and then go through menopause. But by some unfortunate turn,...
The old jeepney slowly negotiated the forested area of the University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB) in Laguna, its engine screeching as it struggled up the steep road. At the foot of Mount Makiling in this part of the UPLB campus, towering trees greeted everyone alighting from the jeepney. Many trees stood behind the...
Ten days after his arrest, false reports surfaced on Chinese digital media platforms claiming that former president Rodrigo Duterte had collapsed into a coma while in detention at The Hague, where he faces trial before the International Criminal Court (ICC) for crimes against humanity linked to his bloody antidrug war. Fabricated accounts described his condition...
The stunning arrest of former president Rodrigo Duterte by Interpol on March 11 has unleashed a torrent of disinformation across social media. Fabricated claims and misleading narratives widely cast him as a victim of injustice in an apparent effort to garner public support. Fact checks on spurious posts about Duterte’s arrest in Manila and his...
Text and photos by Bullit Marquez With her body painted to depict the Earth’s oceans and continents, popular actress and singer Nadine Lustre posed to push a New Vegan appeal for Peta (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) at Parallax Studio in Pasig City on March 17. Members of the media were invited for...
PLDT has finally acquired a large parcel of land for its campus-style headquarters in the 244-hectare Filinvest City in Alabang, the central business district of Muntinlupa City, CoverStory.ph has learned. The acquisition of the property ended years of on-again, off-again negotiations between PLDT and Filinvest Alabang Inc. (FAI) of the Gotianun family. Currently, the publicly...
On a Thursday afternoon, just after the lunchtime rush, a pack of motorcycles pulled into a narrow alleyway in a Metro Manila city. Their riders parked their bikes in front of a makeshift rest area. The space resembled a typical “tambayan.” Equipped with a wall fan, and a water and a charging station, it was...
