Tech Billionaire Admits To Backing Lawsuits Against Gawker

Peter Thiel, a billionaire tech entrepreneur, has revealed that he funded a major damaging lawsuit against Gawker Media, the company whose now-defunct publication Valleywag outed Thiel as being gay years ago. The lawsuit, in which Hulk Hogan sued Gawker for publishing parts of his sex tape, ended with a jury awarding the wrestler $140 million in damages. Thiel, co-founder of PayPal, has now admitted to bankrolling the lawsuit after funding a team of lawyers to find and help “victims” of Gawker Media and its publications. “It’s less about revenge and more about specific deterrence,” Thiel told the New York Times. “I saw Gawker pioneer a unique and incredibly damaging way of getting attention by bullying people even when there was no connection with the public interest.” The Times suggests the case is troubling, both from a First Amendment standpoint and in the context of the rising trend of litigation finance.