Just before dinner on July 2, 2020, Cheng Fan was upstairs in his two-storey home in Blacktown, western Sydney, sending his 820,000th email for the day. They were no less abusive than the other 23 million emails the Chinese-born Fan had sent in the preceding days and weeks to voters during the by-election campaign for the federal seat of Eden-Monaro. Fan was unleashing a digital tsunami of lies and personal vitriol about the then Labor candidate Kristy McBain.