A's use of the phrase "largely autonomous but very helpful" to describe the relationship certainly leaves open that possibility - that would mean they were willing to work with people who made the internet nastier, more stupid, less truthful and - in the case of "swatting" attacks on Gamergate critics - more dangerous.Īnd though his taste for conspiracy may have showed Thiel's belief that it is important to be able to scheme and act out of the public eye, it also gave the impression that he had lots to hide. It matters a great deal precisely what the relationship between the Thiel conspiracy and Gamergate was.Įven if the conspirators merely watched from the sidelines as Gamergate ripped through the internet, the very existence of Gamergate should have disproved Thiel's narrow belief that Gawker was the cause of all internet-based nastiness.īut if Thiel's conspirators had any contact with Gamergate - and Mr. claims that the conspirators had nothing to do with starting Gamergate," he writes, "but they undoubtedly fanned the flames." This ambiguity and secretiveness should have prompted Holiday to dig much deeper, rather than to accept the conspirators' stonewalling. Holiday's treatment of Gamergate in Conspiracy is troublingly brief. While Gawker Media was far from Gamergate's only target, the movement opened up yet another front in the war on the company's credibility. The campaign of harassment spread to other people who had either advocated for or embodied diversity in the industry, or spoken up against Gamergate. Quinn was subject to violent threats and had to leave her home. Thiel and his co-conspirators were willing beneficiaries of an internet-based controversy - Gamergate - that would make the way Gawker outed Thiel look positively civilized. Thiel's quest came up short in part because his conspiracy fell prey to a risk that comes from not having to be publicly accountable for your actions: adopting tactics or allies that undercut the broader mission. By contrast, Gawker was destroyed not because its leaders failed to conspire, but because they didn't pursue the transparency they claimed to believe in. It is one of the many ironies of this story, and of Conspiracy, that talking makes Thiel more sympathetic and comprehensible than plotting ever did.īut by the end of the book, it's clear that, despite Holiday's argument, Thiel's conspiracy failed: Thiel killed Gawker, but in doing so undermined his dream of making the internet a more decent place and securing a more private life for himself. Holiday, an author and corporate adviser, had unusual access to Thiel and Denton. On the surface, it seemed that Thiel's conspiracy had checkmated Gawker Media. In 2016, a Florida jury awarded Bollea damages so punishing that Denton had to sell the company. A, whose role is first described in Conspiracy but who remains a shadowy figure throughout the book, persuaded Thiel to devote $10 million and five years to a shell company aimed at finding and backing potential lawsuits against Gawker. He was so angry at Gawker that he began to refer to it as "the Manhattan Based Terrorist Organization."īut it took him four years to strike back. Because he believed that's where progress came from." What Gawker saw as transparency, Thiel saw as a threat to Silicon Valley. Thiel, as Holiday writes, "venerated privacy, in creating space for weirdos and the politically incorrect to do what they do. Gawker's Denton, who like Thiel is gay and libertarian, believed that Thiel's refusal to be open about his gayness was proof that Thiel was "paranoid." To Thiel, the story was a terrible violation, one that made him into an object of curiosity in a way he found incomprehensible. In 2007, Gawker Media had acquired a powerful and patient enemy when one of its writers outed PayPal founder and venture capitalist Peter Thiel as gay. The story may seem wacky already, but this is when it gets truly weird. Daulerio, then editor of the company's flagship site, published excerpts of a sex tape, recorded in 2006 without Bollea's consent or knowledge, that showed Bollea in bed with Heather Clem, who was then married to Bollea's best friend: Tampa radio personality Bubba the Love Sponge.