Mason  🏃‍♂️ ✂️

The whole thing is one big arc about how both media companies and billionaires can flex their disproportionate influence. Would anyone else have gotten Gawker shut down? No. And that's a meaningful part of the story.

Thiel gets to sue journalists out of existence. We don't have to hold him up as some kind of hero just because he has that power. He attempted something personally beneficial to him, and had the resources to succeed. Then it was back to the daily grind surveilling migrants.

it was also beneficial for society! that's what these media people consistently deny.

Maybe? The chilling effect against revenge porn is great for society. The one against offending billionaires isn't.

It’s silly to think the chilling effects were against revenge porn. They were narrowly about posting something offensive to the rich or well connected. Do the 4chan people really think twice before posting nudes for this???

a world where Katie Hill's pics were only on 4chan instead of the Daily Mail etc sounds like an improved world, to me.

I see broad agreement here. I don't begrudge the media for commenting on Peter Thiel's involvement/motivations. I *do* take great issue with the completely unjustifiable claim that the suit was frivolous & the missed opportunity in pointing out how finances rule civil proceedings

In the end, the story the media wanted was "bad guy does bad thing for bad reasons," and that story was completely unjustified by the facts. But of course, journalists also had their own reasons for wanting to reject the very concept of this sort of liability for their industry