Over 13,700 Apply For Online Campaign Platform Registration

Over 13,000 political aspirants and party-list groups have filed applications for registration of their respective online campaign platforms to be used in the May 2025 national and local polls, according to the Commission on Elections.

Latest data from the Comelec showed there were 13,723 applications filed afternoon of Friday, Dec. 13, which was the last day of filing.

Of the total number, 70 are from senatorial aspirants and 13,416 are from local aspirants.

Meanwhile, party-list organizations and political parties and coalitions have 237 applications.

Comelec spokesman John Rex Laudiangco said all these applications will now be evaluated for their compliance.

“These are all subject to final online and hard copy evaluation and verification,” said Laudiangco.

Under Resolution No. 11064, all candidates, political parties and party-list organizations intending to take part in the May 2025 elections are required to have their online campaign platforms registered.

This covers all official social media accounts and pages, websites, podcasts, blogs, vlogs and other internet-based campaign platforms.

Regulation

In an interview with “Storycon” on One News on Thursday, Dec. 12, Comelec Chairman George Garcia recognized the difficulty in regulating the use of social media in the upcoming elections.

Garcia urged lawmakers to pass a law that would set the limits of digital campaigns used during elections.

“We cannot limit that because there is no law… We hope that in the future, we will have a law that will regulate social media, even just during the period of the campaign,” he said in Filipino.

“Running (for public office) is not an absolute right, it’s a mere privilege. Therefore, it’s really subject to regulations,” he added.

Last September, the Comelec issued a resolution providing for the guidelines on the use of social media, artificial intelligence and internet technology for digital campaigns.

It prohibited certain acts, such as the use of “false amplifiers,” coordinated inauthentic behavior, creation and dissemination of “deepfakes” and the use of fake and unregistered social media accounts.

The poll body also mandated the registration of all official social media accounts, pages, websites, podcasts, vlogs and other online and internet-based campaign platforms to be used by candidates.

One provision of the resolution – which required the registration of private individuals such as influencers who support a candidate – was removed by Comelec following concerns of overreach.

Garcia recognized that the policy may be “bordering on unconstitutionality” as the support of a private individual to a candidate is covered by freedom of speech and expression.

“That’s where influencers come in. There is no law defining who are these social media influencers,” he said, making it impossible to determine if they are being paid to support a candidate or they are merely expressing their support.

The poll body chief said they are in close coordination with social media platforms to try to regulate election-relation related activities in their respective sites.

But he urged Congress to pass the necessary laws so the Comelec would not have to appeal to platforms for their support in regulating digital campaigns. – With an additional report from Janvic Mateo