Philippine president admits he used an army of social media trolls while campaigning

Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte has admitted he paid an army of social media trolls to defend him while he was on the campaign trail last year.

The outspoken and at times controversial politician was defending himself after a University of Oxford study was published, finding that Duterte uses both automated and human trolls on social media.

Speaking at a press conference on Monday, Duterte said: "I spent 10 million [pesos] ($198,000)? Me? Maybe in the election...They were all during the campaign."

He was refuting accusations that he continued to deploy a social media army, inadvertently admitting that he relied on the strategy in his 2016 presidential campaign. Read more...