How did Ayyadurai come to have the same attorney as the former wrester and other anti-Gawker litigants? It was, he says, "fortuitous luck" after years of searching for a willing representative. "I couldn't find any firms." All the lawyers he consulted had conflicts of interest or were otherwise dissuaded from getting involved by the Gizmodo article attacking his e-mail claim. "There is so much vitriol. Whenever people would look at me, they would think I'm a nut."
He happened to contact Harder around the time of the Hogan ruling—and Harder, unlike other attorneys, was willing to take the case because of his recent victory against Gawker.
2. Teaching Gawker a Very Expensive Lesson
While denying a direct link to Thiel, Ayyadurai shares the same values as the tech billionaire. "I can tell you I'm very appreciative that Peter Thiel did fund Hulk Hogan, and they did win," he said. The anti-Gawker lawsuits are "market forces modulating this world of deplorable journalism." To Ayyadurai, Gawker traffics in sensationalism and clickbait. "You can rampantly write whatever you want," he explained. "It's all about getting the clicks." As a counterpoint to that argument, Gawker this week compiled a list of high-impact stories it has produced over the years.
He hopes the lawsuits will teach enterprises such as Gawker a lesson. "Who is Sam Biddle to call me an asshole, dick, and a loon?" he says of the Gawker journalist who wrote the e-mail-debunking story and is named in his suit. "What has he contributed to society?"
Thiel has made similar comments calling into question Gawker's journalism. "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," he said in an interview with the New York Times.
As for any claims that the lawsuits threaten the First Amendment, Ayyadurai believes that his suit will serve to improve the free press. "Journalists should be very appreciative of this," he said. "We're going to get higher quality journalism."
3. Yes, He Wants to End Gawker
In addition to whatever money he wins, Ayyadurai hopes that his suit and others like it will ultimately bring about the total destruction of Gawker and its brand of journalism. "Gawker as an organization should cease to exist for the behavior that they've done," he said. "People say Peter Thiel wants to destroy Gawker. I say power to him. They've gotten away, frankly, with deplorable behavior."
The Hogan case has already had financial consequences for Gawker. The company has acknowledged that it is exploring strategic options.
4. The Dispute Over Who Invented E-Mail Is Racist
Ayyadurai insists his invention of e-mail is being ignored because of his race. The U.S. military, which gets credited for creating ARPANET in 1971, participated in what he describes as "technology revisionism." Put simply, Ayyadurai says, his pioneering work on e-email has been overlooked because of his brown skin. "It is a segregation-type bias," he says. "It must come out of Silicon Valley."