From New York trial judge Shlomo Hagler's opinion released today in Gu v. The Verge: (you can also read Gu's argument to the contrary, and the underlying article):
Plaintiff Dr. Eugene Gu, appearing pro se in this media defamation case, is an online activist involved in a series of controversies, ranging from a Congressional investigation into research use of human fetal tissue, to online debates about racial discrimination and white supremacy, to a federal lawsuit challenging former President Trump's use of Twitter to block critics. Dr. Gu claims, on Twitter and elsewhere, to be the victim of retaliation, harassment, and online bullying for his activism, while his critics, on Twitter and elsewhere, claim that he is the bully and harasser.
In this action, Dr. Gu challenges a news profile about him which was published on March 5, 2019 … by defendants Vox Media, LLC, and its reporter, Laura Yan …. The Article chronicles Dr. Gu's rise to fame and the controversies in which he has been embroiled, including interviews with Dr. Gu and a number of his critics. Dr. Gu contends that seven discrete statements within the Article are defamatory, and asserts claims for defamation and intentional infliction of emotional distress….
Dr. Gu is a doctor and an outspoken social justice advocate on Twitter. On his Twitter account, @eugenegu, he has more than 443,000 followers. He posts regularly about his experiences as an Asian American in the medical field, his activism on Twitter, and retaliation and online harassment he has received in response.
Dr. Gu has also published opinion pieces, appeared on camera for interviews, and been the subject of numerous press reports on these topics (see e.g. Democracy Now interview transcript [NYSCEF Doc No. 11], at 8 ["I took the knee to fight against the very racism that I was the victim of …. And I was punished for it"]; Independent article [NYSCEF Doc No. 12], at 3 [discussing "Republican war on medical research involving fetal tissue" and Congressional subpoena]; Buzzfeed article [NYSCEF Doc No. 12] [discussing viral Tweet in support of Colin Kaepernick]).
Dr. Gu has also appeared as a named plaintiff in a widely publicized lawsuit challenging former President Trump's practice of blocking critics on Twitter as a violation of his and other Twitter users' First Amendment rights….
On February 20, 2018, Yan contacted Dr. Gu, identifying herself as a freelance writer from Brooklyn who wanted to do a profile or story on him. Dr. Gu agreed to an interview, and spoke with Yan via Skype on February 22, 2018, and then again on April 2, 2018. Dr. Gu alleges that most of the discussion was about activism for Asian American issues that he was involved in on social media.
Dr. Gu further alleges that, in May 2018, he discovered that Yan was publicly communicating on Twitter with an anonymous user claiming to be a physician called #MedTwitter. This anonymous user went by various Twitter handles including @nefariousMD, @nefariousBFT, and @thephoenixMD1. Dr. Gu alleges that, on multiple occasions, this anonymous account harassed him with racial epithets about his Asian American heritage, false accusations of domestic violence, and ganged up with other physicians on #MedTwitter to publicly ask him to commit suicide, and donate his organs to these physicians for further study. On June 7, 2018, Gu emailed Yan, explaining that, because of her tweets to anonymous user @nefariousMD, @thephoenixMD1, and @ñcfariousBFT who are believed to be the same individual, he would terminate communication with Yan, and pursue a defamation lawsuit if any malicious article resulted from baseless accusations without evidence.
The ensuing Article was published on the Vox Media website The Verge on March 5, 2019, and is entitled, "The Strange Case of Eugene Gu," with the subheading, "Behind one of Twitter's most outspoken social justice personalities is a history of abuse." The Article starts with an overview of Dr. Gu's rise to fame on Twitter, including his growing number of followers, a viral tweet showing Dr. Gu taking a knee to protest white supremacy, and his participation in the First Amendment challenge to the President's Twitter practices. Next, the Article states that "Gu had learned just how powerful the platform [Twitter] could be …. Eventually, the same platform that built him up would threaten to be his undoing."
The court concludes that some of the allegations were substantially true and some were opinions, and thus weren't actionable as defamation or as intentional infliction of emotional distress; here's an excerpt (though you can also read the whole opinion):
