Rey Joseph "RJ" P. Nieto also known as Thinking Pinoy is a Filipino blogger and the author of commentary blog site ThinkingPinoy.net. After expressing support for the Duterte administration and writing several blogs that criticized members ofthe Philippine Opposition, he was accused by the latter for allegedy spreading “state-sponsored” fake news against them.[1][2] His indictment for the criminal libel case filed against him by Opposition politician Antonio Trillanes has been criticized by free-speech advocates as an “anathema of free expression.”[3]
He worked as a columnist reporter at the Sunstar Davao local newspaper in 2010.[4]
2016 to 2020
Nieto served as a co-host of the podcast of Karambola sa DWIZ 882, a radio and internet podcast program tackling political issues, together with Jonathan dela Cruz, Trixie Cruz Angeles, Conrad Banal and Larry Gadon.[5]
2017
Nieto was hired[6][7] in July 2017 by the Department of Foreign Affairs as its social media consultant and was tasked to be its "head of strategic communications for migrant workers' affairs". He reportedly resigned in November 2017, a week after attending a Senate hearing which discussed fake news.[8]
Currently, Nieto has his own show on SMNI News, called Thinking Pinoy on SMNI (or TP on SMNI),[10] a weekday radio and tv program commentary on topics of national interest and political issues together with co-host Admar Villando. First guest on the first episode was former senator, Bongbong Marcos. The show faced mixed comments and eventually became a hit on the network.
Before TP on SMNI, Nieto first appeared as a co-host on the show Usaping Bayan with Mike Abe [11] on the same channel on September 2020.
Blogging career
Nieto established his blog site, "Thinking Pinoy" in November 2015. He initially began to write his own political opinions after realizing that he usually does not agree with political views he reads online. When the campaign period for the 2016 Philippine elections began, he decided to start the blog after noting that "there was something different in the air". He initially expected a readership of 500 people a week.[12]
Nieto claimed that his first article registered 10-15 thousand hits and said that his blog's readership ballooned in December 2015 when he made a post tackling the issue of Senator Mar Roxas' degree from University of Pennsylvania. He said that his site crashed 21 times and that particular post registered at least a million hits.[12] Most of the pro-Duterte bloggers register similarly large numbers of engagement. There has been some debate on whether the numbers for pundits such as Nieto were organic/unadulterated or the fruit of astroturfing and white glove weaponization tactics offered by Facebook to political clients.[13]
Misinformation accusations
Nieto has been accused of spreading misinformation through his website and Facebook page.
Donald Trump and Antonio Trillianes - in 2017, Nieto made a post where he alleged that US President Donald Trump called Senator Antonio Trillanes a "little narco" or a drug lord. The senator called the claims in the article "fake news" and has filed a libel case against Nieto for the post while the blogger claimed that the primary source for the post was Al Pedroche's column in Pilipino Star Ngayon. Pedroche has apologized for the column saying that the interaction between Trump and Trillanes did not take place.[14]
In June 2017, Nieto accused photojournalist Jes Aznar of endangering government troops during the Battle of Marawi by revealing positions to the public via videos posted online.[15][16] Contrary to Nieto's claims, Aznar posted the videos when the government troops he was embedded with were already out of the area, and that Aznar's video postings were fully sanctioned by the military.[17] Nieto was condemned in posting his false accusations by the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) for endangering Aznar's life via threats and harassment from Nieto's followers.[18]
In November 2017, Nieto created a post misquoting Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as saying "...Theoretically, it is impossible to get (the garbage) back... even if it originally came from Canada" in reference to trash shipped to the Philippines from Canada. In fact, Trudeau's actual quote was "Even though it originally came from Canada, we had legal barriers and restrictions that prevented us from being able to take it back. Those regulations and those impediments have now been addressed, so it is now theoretically possible to get it back.",[19] which is the complete opposite of what Nieto posted.[20][21]
On March 4, 2018, he cited a falsified 1979 psychiatric report attributed to the late Fr. Jaime Bulatao, SJ on former President Benigno Aquino III.[22] On March 7, The Ateneo de Manila University Department of Psychology condemned the posting and reiterated that the report was a fabrication.[23][24] On April 27, 2010, Bulatao had already categorically denied having written and signed the report.[25][26]
On December 28, in his Manila Bulletin column and blog, Nieto claimed that Philippine mainstream media and journalists were spreading fake news for stating that an amendment to the United States Fiscal Year 2020 State and Foreign Operations Appropriations Bill included a prohibition on entry to the United States for foreign government officials that the U.S. Secretary of State had credible information to have been involved in the wrongful imprisonment of Senator Leila De Lima.[27] Philippine Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo however confirmed on December 29 in a radio interview that he had spoken with Philippine Ambassador to the U.S. Jose Manuel "Babes" Romualdez the entry ban was true.[28] While the approved U.S. Appropriations Act of 2020,[29] signed on Dec. 20 by U.S. President Donald Trump does not itself expressly mention the ban, the act's accompanying explanatory statement[30] in the Division G section[31] states that U.S. Federal Government entities are directed to comply with the directives and instructions of the reports accompanying the State Department appropriation bills of both the House and Senate. This includes the U.S. Senate Committee Report 116-126 which states: "Prohibition on Entry.--The Secretary of State shall apply subsection (c) to foreign government officials about whom the Secretary has credible information have been involved in the wrongful imprisonment of:... ...(2) Senator Leila de Lima who was arrested in the Philippines in 2017."[32][33][34] On January 22, 2020, Senator Ronaldo "Bato" dela Rosa confirmed that his travel visa to the United States had indeed been canceled.[35]
On January 18, 2020, Nieto claimed that Ayala Land was only paying ₱22 per square meter monthly to University of the Philippines for the lease of land of U.P.–Ayala Land TechnoHub, citing his expertise as a former Mathematics major at said university (which he did not graduate from) to get to this figure.[36]Office of the President of the Philippines spokesperson Salvador Panelo declared that he wanted to review the lease contract between Ayala Land and University of the Philippines after reading about it on Nieto's blog. In actuality, Ayala Land is bound to pay more than ₱10 billion for the lease of land owned by University of the Philippines and is currently paying ₱171 per square meter and not ₱22 as claimed by Nieto and cited by Panelo.[37][38]
On March 2, 2020, Nieto claimed that Senator Franklin Drilon fell asleep for five to ten seconds during a February 27, 2020 interview with CNN Philippines anchor Pinky Webb.[39] Contrary to Nieto's claim, Drilon was reading documents in front of him and was not sleeping.[40] According to Webb herself on her Twitter account, "Here’s what happened. As I was laying the premise for my question, I saw Sen Drilon look down at the documents he had on the table. I did not see him fall asleep."[41]
Defamation lawsuits
Nieto has faced two defamation cases in relation to the content published on his blog site. One of which led to an indictment, while none so far have resulted in conviction.
In 2017, blogger Maria Josephina Vergina "Jover" Laurio, the author of blog site Pinoy Ako Blog[42] that publishes content criticizing the Duterte administration, has accused RJ Nieto of “doxxing” her.[43] Ironically, former Senator Leila de Lima, who was also the former Secretary of Commission on Human Rights, has expressed suport for the libel case filed by Laurio, [44] while human rights advocates and free speech advocates have called libel cases an attack on human rights and free speech.[3] After attorney Nick Falcis published evidences in 2019 allegedly proving that Kris Aquino has been funding Laurio to attack Nieto and other bloggers expressing support for Duterte[45], there are still no further updates about the status of the case as of August 2021.
In 2018, Nieto was indicted for libel over a post on his blog that allegedly claimed “U.S. President Donald Trump called former opposition senator Antonio Trillanes a narco (a slang for drug lord)”.[46] Nieto filed a not-guilty plea and refused to comment on the case, telling reporters, "Let's just wait for the trial."[47] This indictment was criticized by free-speech advocates as an attack on freedom of expression.[3] As of August 2021, there were no updates about the trial or the case.
Cultural Criticism
It has been noted by Filipino academics such as Jonathan Corpus Ong and Jason Cabanes (in their published report Architects of Networked Disinformation) that the Duterte regime counts on many members of the LGBTQI+ community as cheerleaders because they possess a control of popular vernacular language and codes, as well as an ability to code-switch easily, from high to low language, between genders on multiple social media accounts, between socialist and extreme right policies. The report also states, in its ethnographic profile of a "chief disinformation architect," a quote that summarized much of the criticism hurled at RJ Nieto: "It is interesting how corruption in mainstream media is used as a moral justification to dispose of institutionalized practice by replacing it with another version—equally lacking in scruples, and ultimately benefiting themselves. By expressing statements that normalize or even exaggerate evil or corruption in existing public institutions, these ambitious workers imagine themselves as self-styled agents of positive change." It could be reliably argued that RJ Nieto fits the bill as a "chief architect of disinformation," as per the qualifications in this report and as per Nieto's touting of his own relevance as a political opinion maker within a regime that has demonstrably used disinformation to assert its positions.
Nieto stated at a senate hearing in 2018 that the Department of Foreign Affairs, where he briefly occupied a position before resigning, needed him more that he needed it, clearly stating that he (and by extension, bloggers like him) are more important than the government institutions that they serve. It has become standard practice in the Duterte administration to reward loyalists with government positions, despite public outcry on all levels at the lack of professional qualifications for the posts they are appointed to.[48] Duterte himself stated that he appointed Nieto's close associate and now government official, Mocha Uson, to her position at the Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO) because he owed it her (according to Filipino social value of "utang na loob" or debt of gratitude) for offering her services for free during his campaign period. This casts a shadow on Nieto's own appointment to a position at the Department for Foreign Affairs, a post for which he did not possess previous experience or sector-specific understanding of career civil service in the department.[49]
Nieto served as a co-host of the podcast of Karambola sa DWIZ 882, a radio and internet podcast program tackling political issues, together with Jonathan dela Cruz, Trixie Cruz Angeles, Conrad Banal and Larry Gadon.[1]
Currently, Nieto has his own show on SMNI News, called Thinking Pinoy on SMNI (or TP on SMNI),[5] a weekday radio and tv program commentary on topics of national interest and political issues together with co-host Admar Villando. First guest on the first episode was former senator, Bongbong Marcos. The show faced mixed comments and eventually became a hit on the network.
Before TP on SMNI, Nieto first appeared as a co-host on the show Usaping Bayan with Mike Abe [6] on the same channel on September 2020.
According to an interview on the now-defunct Concept News Central, ThinkingPinoy.net started in November 2015.[9]
Despite impressions that ThinkingPinoy.net is a government-sponsored “pro-Duterte” blog,[10] the offiicial About page of the website disclaimed that its content “do not necessarily reflect the view of any particular political party.”[8]
The About page also claimed that RJ Nieto “started this hobby in mid-November, when he created the infographic in RapplerX. The infographic was shared over 20,000 times across several social media platforms.”[8]
Thr Facebook page Facebook.com/TheThinkingPinoy presented at the About page of ThimkingPinoy.net[8] which functions as an extension/mirror of the website has 1.6 million+ followers as of August 2021.[7]
Legal Cases
Nieto has been allegedly involved in doxxing, and a cyberlibel case has been filed against him by blogger Jover Laurio, the author of Pinoy Ako Blog.[11][12]
In 2018, Nieto was also indicted for libel for posting on his blog that U.S. President Donald Trump called former opposition senator Antonio Trillanes a narco or drug lord.[13] Nieto filed a not guilty plea and refused to comment on the case, telling reporters, "Let's just wait for the trial."[14] His indictment for the criminal libel case filed against him by Opposition politician Antonio Trillanes has been criticized by free-speech advocates as an "anathema to free expression."[15]
Cultural Criticism
It has been noted by Filipino academics such as Jonathan Corpus Ong and Jason Cabanes (in their published report Architects of Networked Disinformation) that the Duterte regime counts on many members of the LGBTQI+ community as cheerleaders because they possess a control of popular vernacular language and codes, as well as an ability to code-switch easily, from high to low language, between genders on multiple social media accounts, between socialist and extreme right policies. The report also states, in its ethnographic profile of a "chief disinformation architect," a quote that summarized much of the criticism hurled at RJ Nieto: "It is interesting how corruption in mainstream media is used as a moral justification to dispose of institutionalized practice by replacing it with another version—equally lacking in scruples, and ultimately benefiting themselves. By expressing statements that normalize or even exaggerate evil or corruption in existing public institutions, these ambitious workers imagine themselves as self-styled agents of positive change." It could be reliably argued that RJ Nieto fits the bill as a "chief architect of disinformation," as per the qualifications in this report and as per Nieto's touting of his own relevance as a political opinion maker within a regime that has demonstrably used disinformation to assert its positions.
Nieto stated at a senate hearing in 2018 that the Department of Foreign Affairs, where he briefly occupied a position before resigning, needed him more that he needed it, clearly stating that he (and by extension, bloggers like him) are more important than the government institutions that they serve. It has become standard practice in the Duterte administration to reward loyalists with government positions, despite public outcry on all levels at the lack of professional qualifications for the posts they are appointed to.[16] Duterte himself stated that he appointed Nieto's close associate and now government official, Mocha Uson, to her position at the Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO) because he owed it her (according to Filipino social value of "utang na loob" or debt of gratitude) for offering her services for free during his campaign period. This casts a shadow on Nieto's own appointment to a position at the Department for Foreign Affairs, a post for which he did not possess previous experience or sector-specific understanding of career civil service in the department.[17]