Anti-Duterte blogger sues Thinking Pinoy, Sass Sasot

A blogger critical of the Duterte administration on Tuesday filed a civil complaint against two pro-Duterte internet personalities for their alleged breach into her privacy when they publicly disclosed her identity in October last year.

In a complaint filed with the Makati Regional Trial Court, Jover Laurio, the woman behind the Pinoy Ako Blog, accused bloggers Rey Joseph Nieto and Sass Rogando Sasot of malicious and unauthorized gathering and publication of her sensitive personal information.

This allegedly violates the Data Privacy Act of 2012 and the provisions of the Civil Code on the rights to privacy and to free speech, the complaint said.

Laurio is asking P2.15 million in moral, exemplary, and nominal damages, attorney's fees and suit costs. 

The complainant cited Nieto's post on his website Thinking Pinoy on October 8, 2017, which revealed her full name, user credentials for the Pinoy Ako Blog, and the law school she is enrolled in.

"The act described above is referred to in internet jargon as doxing. Doxing is considered extremely unethical, and is typically done with malicious intent -- to intimidate, interrogate, blackmail and control," Laurio said.

Laurio claimed she received both private and public "harassing" and "threatening" messages from supporters of Nieto and Sasot as a result of the revelation of her identity.

The harassment, she said, has made her suffer "mental anguish, serious anxiety, wounded feelings, and moral shock," and resulted in her taking a leave of absence from law school and work.

Aside from damages, she asked the court to order Nieto and Sasot to stop publishing her personal information and to destroy all copies in all formats of all such information they have in their possession.

Laurio has also sued another Duterte supporter, self-described "political analyst" Franco Mabanta, for libel. The complaint is awaiting resolution, she told GMA News Online.

The Pinoy Ako Blog's Facebook page, where Laurio links blog posts critical of the Duterte administration, is followed by over 150,000 people. She has appeared at Senate hearings on fake news.

GMA News Online has sought comment from Nieto and Sasot. —KBK, GMA News