Peter Thiel—Peter Thiel secretly funded lawsuit that bankrupted Gawker Media
Peter Thiel secretly funded Hulk Hogan's invasion of privacy lawsuit against Gawker Media, which resulted in a $140 million verdict and Gawker's bankruptcy in 2016. Thiel funded the case in retaliation for Gawker's 2007 article outing him as gay. He spent approximately $10 million funding various lawsuits against Gawker before the Hogan verdict.
Scoring Impact
| Topic | Direction | Relevance | Contribution |
|---|---|---|---|
| Press Freedom | -against | primary | -1.00 |
| Overall incident score = | -1.020 | ||
Score = avg(topic contributions) × significance (high ×1.5) × confidence (0.68)
Evidence (2 signals)
Secretly funded Hulk Hogan lawsuit that bankrupted Gawker Media
Peter Thiel secretly funded Hulk Hogan's invasion of privacy lawsuit against Gawker Media, which resulted in a $140 million verdict and Gawker's bankruptcy in 2016. Thiel funded the case in retaliation for Gawker's 2007 article outing him as gay. The case raised concerns about billionaires using litigation to silence media outlets.
Secretly funded Hulk Hogan lawsuit that bankrupted Gawker Media
Peter Thiel secretly funded Hulk Hogan's invasion of privacy lawsuit against Gawker Media, which resulted in a $140 million verdict and Gawker's bankruptcy in 2016. Thiel funded the case in retaliation for Gawker's 2007 article outing him as gay. The case raised concerns about billionaires using litigation to silence media outlets.