> you're conflating the actions of a government and the actions of a private individual. Peter Thiel isn't the government

I don't think if it's government or individual it changes the inherent unfairness of having someone decide to watch you, and just you, for any sign of a slip up and then getting you punished based on it. Heck, I think most siblings understand this kind of unfairness with uneven parental justice.

> You are also muddying up scale. In your example, the government is much more powerful than the individual. In the Gawker case, all the parties are pretty much at parity.

There's an order of magnitude difference between the net worth of Thiel and Gawker as a whole. And that's on a good day for Gawker.