Troll armies, a growth industry in the Philippines, may soon be coming to an election near you
MANILA, Philippines - As public anger mounted last year over delayed plans to shake up the Philippines' outage-plagued telecommunications sector, angry comments and one-star ratings flooded a government-run Facebook page.
When employees suspected online trolls, President Rodrigo Duterte's digital mastermind offered a solution.
"I'll handle this," said Nic Gabunada, the architect of the social media strategy that powered Duterte's 2016 election victory, according to a government employee who managed the Facebook page.
Pro-Duterte comments soon poured onto the page, with users defending the president's handling of the situation or blaming the problems on the previous administration. Many of the new commenters had only basic profile information on their pages, which featured mostly generic posts with religious or pro-government messages.
"It was Nic," said the employee, who was interviewed on the condition her name not be used for
