Philippines Senate Hearing Featured Reports of Purported AI-Generated Deepfake Pornography Targeting Actress Angel Aquino and Content Creator Queen Hera's Daughter

In Manila, actress Angel Aquino reportedly said in a hearing how AI-generated deepfake porn video unlawfully used her face. She reportedly testified at a Senate hearing led by Sen. Risa Hontiveros and urged punishment for creators and those sharing the purported deepfakes. Influencer Queen Hera also reported a deepfake image of her daughter on the dark web; tools and perpetrators were reportedly not identified.

Risk classification

• Primary risk domain: 4 Malicious actors
• Primary risk subdomain: 4.3 Fraud, scams, and targeted manipulation

The incident involves the creation of non-consensual deepfake pornography targeting specific individuals for humiliation and carnal entertainment, which falls under targeted manipulation and harassment using synthetic imagery.

Additional risk subdomains

• 1.2 Exposure to toxic content: The incident involves the creation and distribution of sexually explicit, non-consensual deepfake pornography, exposing victims and online spaces to toxic content.

Causal factors

• Entity: Human
• Intent: Intentional
• Timing: Post-deployment

The incident was caused by human actors intentionally using deployed AI generation tools to create non-consensual deepfake pornographic content of the victims.

EU AI Act risk tier

• Risk tier: 3 Limited Risk

Limited Risk: The report describes the creation of deepfakes, which under the EU AI Act are classified as limited risk, requiring specific transparency obligations to inform users that the content is AI-generated.

AI system and alleged parties

• AI system: unspecified
• AI purpose: Deepfake Video Generation; Deepfake Image Generation
• Behaviour type: Tool
• Alleged developer: Unknown deepfake technology developers
• Alleged deployer: Unknown deepfake creators
• Alleged harmed parties: Women, Queen Hera's daughter, Queen Hera, minors, Epistemic integrity, Angel Aquino

Harm severity

Severity ratings are based on this scale.

Highest direct severity in any category: Substantial. Severity is scored from Negligible to Catastrophic in each harm category, for harm the reports describe as caused directly or indirectly by the AI system.

• Physical: direct Negligible, indirect Negligible
• Infrastructure: direct Negligible, indirect Negligible
• Property: direct Negligible, indirect Negligible
• Financial: direct Negligible, indirect Negligible
• Environmental: direct Negligible, indirect Negligible
• Malicious content: direct Substantial, indirect Negligible
• Differential treatment: direct Negligible, indirect Minor
• Civil rights: direct Minor, indirect Negligible
• Democracy: direct Negligible, indirect Negligible
• Privacy: direct Minor, indirect Negligible
• Psychological: direct Minor, indirect Negligible
• Epistemic: direct Negligible, indirect Negligible
• Child sexual exploitation and abuse: direct Substantial, indirect Negligible

Malicious content

Reported: Yes, the report explicitly describes the creation and spread of toxic and malicious deepfake pornographic content.

Directly caused: Perpetrators created a deepfake pornographic video of Angel Aquino and a deepfake image of Queen Hera's daughter superimposed onto a man's private part, which was uploaded to the dark web.

Inferred additional harm: It is highly likely that numerous other deepfake pornographic videos and images of other women and girls have been created and distributed across various online platforms and the dark web.

Differential treatment

Reported: Yes, the report describes how women and girls are disproportionately targeted by this technology.

Indirectly caused: The proliferation of deepfake pornography disproportionately targets and victimizes women and girls, impacting their safety and dignity online.

Inferred additional harm: The systemic targeting of women for non-consensual sexual deepfakes reinforces gender-based harassment and unequal safety in digital spaces.

Civil rights

Reported: Yes, the report explicitly describes violations of personal dignity, integrity, and autonomy.

Directly caused: The non-consensual use of the victims' faces and identities in sexual content violated their rights to dignity, personal integrity, and autonomy.

Inferred additional harm: Widespread proliferation of non-consensual deepfakes threatens the fundamental rights of women and girls to participate safely in public and digital life without harassment.

Privacy

Reported: Yes, the report describes the non-consensual use of the victims' faces and identities.

Directly caused: The victims' public images and likenesses were harvested and manipulated without consent to create sexually explicit content.

Inferred additional harm: The incident highlights a broader threat to individual privacy where anyone's publicly available photos can be weaponized to create non-consensual explicit material.

Psychological

Reported: Yes, the report explicitly describes severe psychological distress and emotional harm to the victims.

Directly caused: Angel Aquino experienced nausea, confusion, disgust, anger, and a sense of violation and dehumanization upon discovering the deepfake. Queen Hera experienced heartbreak and helplessness as a mother discovering her daughter's deepfake.

Inferred additional harm: It is highly likely that Hera's daughter suffered severe psychological trauma and distress upon learning of the deepfake, and other unnamed victims experience similar emotional trauma.

Child sexual exploitation and abuse

Reported: Yes, the report describes an incident involving a content creator's daughter.

Directly caused: A deepfake image of Queen Hera's daughter was found on the dark web with her face superimposed onto a man's private part.

Inferred additional harm: It is highly likely that other children's images are being harvested from social media to generate explicit deepfake content distributed on the dark web.

People affected

• Occurrences reported: 2
• People reportedly harmed: 3
• People reportedly exposed: 3

Potential causes

Management

• Profitization of Deepfakes: Platforms make money out of deepfake views, prioritizing profit over safety.
• Neglecting User Safety: Platform management fails to protect women and children from digital assault.

Technology

• Deepfake AI Generation: AI algorithms superimpose faces onto non-consensual pornographic videos.
• Easy Access to AI Tools: Availability of AI tools allows malicious actors to easily create deepfakes.

Data Inputs

• Publicly Shared Media: Innocent photos and videos posted online are harvested for deepfake creation.

Human Factors

• Malicious Intent of Perpetrators: Perpetrators exploit AI for carnal entertainment and digital assault.
• Platform User Sharing: Users sharing and reposting deepfake materials accelerates the damage.

Process and Methods

• Inadequate Content Moderation: Websites and platforms turn a blind eye to deepfakes spreading online.
• Lack of Rapid Takedown Systems: Absence of effective reporting processes to quickly remove harmful content.

Regulatory Environment

• Absence of Strong Laws: Lack of enforceable legislation to punish deepfake creators and hosts.
• Lack of Regulatory Enforcement: Regulatory bodies fail to hold hosting platforms accountable.

Information quality

• Classification confidence: High
• Reason for confidence: The report provides clear, direct testimonies from two victims detailing the nature of the deepfake abuse, the emotional impact, and the context of a Senate hearing. While the specific AI models used are not named, the description of the technology's application (deepfake generation) and the resulting harms are unambiguous.
• Ambiguities identified: The exact age of Queen Hera's daughter is not explicitly stated, though she is referred to as a daughter in the context of protecting children. The specific AI software or platforms used to generate the deepfakes are not identified.
• Alternative interpretations: None. The incident is clearly a case of non-consensual deepfake pornography.

Philippine Senate hearing addresses the proliferation of non-consensual AI-generated deepfake pornography targeting public figures and minors. While highlighting significant human rights and privacy concerns, the incident represents localized malicious use of AI tools rather than a direct threat to national security.

• Overall national security impact: Minor
• Scope: Single nation
• Primary target: Philippines
• Alleged perpetrator: Unknown

Threat characteristics

• Imminence: Long-term. The proliferation of deepfakes represents an ongoing strategic and regulatory concern rather than an immediate national security crisis.
• Autonomy: Human-controlled. The AI systems were utilized as tools by human perpetrators who directed the creation of specific non-consensual content.
• Novelty: Established threat. Non-consensual deepfake pornography is an established threat with numerous prior documented cases globally.

Impact by dimension

• Physical security: Negligible. No physical security threats, kinetic attacks, or critical infrastructure compromise reported in this incident.
• Information security: Minor. While involving synthetic media, the incident represents localized malicious harassment rather than a coordinated state-sponsored information warfare campaign or intelligence compromise.
• Sovereignty: Negligible. No disruption to core government functions, sovereignty, or electoral processes, though the incident prompted a legislative hearing.
• Economic security: Negligible. No strategic technology theft, financial system disruption, or significant threat to economic security indicated.
• Societal stability: Minor. Represents a violation of personal dignity, privacy, and human rights for the targeted individuals, highlighting broader societal concerns regarding non-consensual deepfakes.