Conspiracy: Peter Thiel, Hulk Hogan, Gawker, and the Anatomy of Intrigue

by Ryan Holiday

Peter tells me, echoing the thrust of Mr. A’s pitch to him in Berlin the previous April, “but I wanted to find a cause of action that wasn’t libel.” Harder agrees; legally it’s the strategically wise move, so they decide to avoid cases related to libel or defamation. Libel and defamation cases are notoriously hard to win in the American legal system. They are fraught with First Amendment complications where the bias is always toward the publisher and the burden of proof on the claimant—especially if he or she satisfies the “public figure” standard—is overwhelming. A private citizen has to prove only negligence on the part of the publisher. A public figure has to prove “actual malice”—that the publisher either knew beforehand that its statements were false or acted with “reckless disregard” as to the truth of the published statements. This was the issue that rendered fruitless so many of Peter’s encounters with sympathetic ears in the years after his initial outing.