MANILA, Philippines — A University of Oxford study found that $200,000, around P10 million, was spent to hire trolls who would spread propaganda for President Rodrigo Duterte and target his opposition.
The study titled “Troops, trolls and troublemakers: A global inventory of organized social media manipulation” looked at how political parties and candidates across 28 countries deploy "cyber troops" who use a variety of strategies, tools and techniques to shape public opinion.
Countries included in the research were Argentina, Azerbaijan, Australia, Bahrain, Brazil, China, the Czech Republic, Ecuador, Germany, India, Iran, Israel, Mexico, North Korea, the Philippines, Poland, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, South Korea, Syria, Taiwan, Turkey, Ukraine, the United Kingdom, the United States, Venezuela and Vietnam.
http://www.philstar.com/headlines/2017/07/24/1721044/duterte-camp-spent-200000-troll-army-oxford-study-findsLOL. I really find it funny that no less than Oxford are doing a study on President Duterte and others as well on the strategy on how he won the election in the Philippines. He is already in the office for 1 year already and they are still hell bent on attacking him. I remember there was a supposedly coup attack back in December but didn't materialized because it didn't get any support from the masses. And despite the backing of some of the richest people in the Philippines and abroad, it didn't push through by lack of support. I agree that Internet now is really being used by a lot of politicians in different parts of the globe, but I have my reservations about Duterte or his camp using paid trolls to promote him. He is already known before his candidacy. Whether its true of not, Duterte has still the support of the people. He's rating is still very high in the last survey.
