AI image of Filipinos calling for boycott on Chinese products misleads online
- Published on December 9, 2025 at 07:42
- 2 min read
- By Ara Eugenio, AFP Philippines
Domestic perception of China in the Philippines has worsened due to heightened tensions over the South China Sea dispute, but a widely shared social media image showing protesters calling for a boycott on Chinese products is fake. It was taken from a video posted on a social media page that shares AI-generated content, and contains inconsistencies often seen in fabricated visuals.
The image appeared in a November 26, 2025 Facebook post from Sass Rogando Sasot, a blogger and supporter of former president Rodrigo Duterte (archived link).
It shows a group of people holding placards that say "NO TO CHINESE PRODUCTS" and "PROTECT FILIPINO BUSINESSES".
"Meme Vice Ganda, your cosmetics could get in trouble here," reads her post, addressing a highly popular Philippine comedian who co-founded a makeup brand.
Vice Ganda, whose real name is Jose Marie Viceral, has been a target of criticism from Duterte supporters for being outspoken against the former leader (archived link).
Duterte, who is detained at the International Criminal Court in The Hague over a crimes against humanity charge linked to his deadly drug war, notably pivoted Philippine foreign policy closer to China during his term in a bid to boost trade and investment (archived link).
The image has spread across social media, with comments from misled users believing it showed a genuine protest in the Philippines.
"If these are the future of the Philippines, the country is doomed," read a user's comment.
Another said: "These protesters are stupid hypocrites."
Surveys have shown the majority of Filipinos think China is the Philippines' greatest threat due to tensions over disputed reefs in the South China Sea (archived link).
Beijing claims most of the strategic waterway despite a 2016 international tribunal ruling that went against it, and there have been frequent clashes or tense standoffs between Philippine and Chinese vessels (archived link).
But the image in the posts does not depict an actual protest.
AI-generated
A reverse image search on Google found the image corresponds to a six-second clip posted on November 22 by a Facebook page called "Boycott Made in China", which has regularly featured AI-generated, anti-China content (archived link).
The image in the false posts appears to be a screenshot from the video, which contains several visual inconsistencies characteristic of AI-generated content.
Many of the alleged protesters do not blink, and their mouths move in a manner that is unusually stiff and slow for chanting protesters.
In several frames, the hands of the supposed protesters are distorted and abnormally thin.
A woman in a red top also has a distorted right arm that appears to unnaturally hold a placard to her right.
AFP also ran the video through the Hive Moderation AI detection tool, which found that it is highly likely to contain AI-generated or deepfake content, with a 99.9 percent confidence level (archived link).
AFP has previously debunked misinformation around Philippine-China relations.
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