They aren’t individuals, they’re ostensibly a news organization, which is why Hogan & Thiel didn’t sue them for committing a felony, they sued them for copyright infringement. The case essentially came down to the court deciding whether Hulk Hogan’s sex life was considered newsworthy or not. A big reason a lot of people were angered by the verdict wasn’t because they really want to defend Gawker or defend them posting videos of Hulk Hogan’s dick, but because Peter Thiel’s money and a court got to decide what constitutes news, and destroyed Gawker because a story about a guy who’d previously been in the news because of his sex life was considered not news because they crossed a line with displaying his genitals on their site.
