Gawker is yet again facing another legal battle. On Tuesday, one of their journalists has filed a lawsuit against the publication for allegedly “double-crossing” a writer, while also “failing to honor an agreement”. The case was filed in a federal court in Manhattan.
The plaintiff, Ashley Terril, is suing the NY-based digital media company for libel. She’s seeking no less than $10 million in damages.
Per The New York Post, the plaintiff believed that her cellphone and computer were hacked while working on a story about an alleged sexual harassment on Tinder, the popular dating application. Terril’s story, however, was for another publishing outlet.
When Terril reached out to Gawker editor John Cook and writer Sam Biddle, the trio agreed to keep everything under wraps. Cook and Biddle also promised Terril to keep her identity confidential.
“She asked Biddle to maintain the confidentiality of the information that she was to share with him and provide her with whatever advice or assistance that he could,” reads a statement from the court papers.
However, Biddle and Cook did not keep their word from Terril. Instead, they released their own version of Terril’s story titled: “Tinder Confidential: The Hookup App’s Founders Can’t Swipe Away the Past”.
Gawker, according to Breitbart, also did not inform Terril that they were already on the same side with Tinder co-founder, Whitney Wolfe. In their story, they borrowed the confidential information worked on by Terril and “used it to slander her publicly”, the site wrote.
To this end, Terry is suing Gawker, John Cook and Sam Biddle. But founder Nick Denton is not mentioned as one of the defendants. According to The Daily Beast, Denton did not respond to an email they previously sent him.
Gawker is also facing a $100m lawsuit against wrestler, Hulk Hogan, for releasing a copy of his sex tape in 2012. The case has been scheduled for trial on March 7th.
