The Legal Minefield of Office Group Chat

We, the modern, group-chatting professional class, saw our personal nightmares play out in a courtroom this week. On Tuesday, John Cook, executive editor of media company Gawker, had to explain, in open court, penis jokes he and his staff made in work group chat platform Campfire in 2012. "I would characterize it as workplace humor," he said, in a taped deposition that was played in front of a jury and live-streamed to anyone who wanted to watch.

Gawker is being sued for $100 million by Terry Gene Bollea, the wrestler also known as Hulk Hogan, for posting a sex tape of the performer. Included in evidence are at least 32 pages of Campfire chats, which begin with "we're about to post the Hulk Hogan sex tape" followed by a series of jokes, including one about a "tender leg drop," Hogan's penis "wearing a little do-rag," and a discussion about the color and consistency of Hogan's "pubes,"—and that's just two pages in.