Part five of seven. Edwin Espejo published this series on Facebook in June and July 2021. It is republished here in full and lightly copyedited; the introduction below is mine, not his. I am a subject of the series as well as its publisher. It concerns the 2016 campaign and not subsequent events, including the proceedings now before the International Criminal Court. Full editorial note and series index → Introduction by Nic Gabunada The script is as predictable as it is tired. Every time the political season heats up, the story about decapitating the trolls comes back around, usually with the same innuendos attached to the same name. I have watched it arrive often enough to know its timing better than its authors do. What strikes

Part two of seven.  Edwin Espejo published this series on Facebook in June and July 2021. It is republished here in full and lightly copyedited; the introduction below is mine, not his. I am a subject of the series as well as its publisher. It concerns the 2016 campaign and not subsequent events, including the proceedings now before the International Criminal Court. Full editorial note and series index → Introduction by Nic Gabunada In this second installment, Edwin moves from the myths to the mechanics. Most of the public argument about 2016 has been an argument about a troll army. It skips the part that actually decided the election. We could open doors to the networks and the newsrooms, and we did. We could move

Part one of seven. In June and July 2021, veteran Mindanao journalist Edwin Espejo published a seven-part series on Facebook examining how the political opposition attempted to reduce the 2016 Duterte campaign — and the people behind it — to a story about “trolls.” The series is republished here in full, with Espejo’s text unchanged apart from minor copyediting. The introductory notes preceding each installment are mine and should not be read as part of Espejo’s original work. Readers should know that I am a subject of the series as well as its publisher. Espejo wrote it independently and without my involvement; I have republished it without altering his argument, including where he is generous about my role. A note on scope. Espejo wrote this