SAN FRANCISCO (Diya TV) — Dr. Shiva Ayyadurai reportedly received a settlement payment of $750,000 from Gawker Media, stemming from a case in which the online media company posted an allegedly libelous article denying Ayyadurai’s invention of email.
Gawker will remove the article from its archives entirely as part of the settlement, according to reports.
“This is a historic victory for truth,” Ayyadurai said in a statement. “Americans have no tolerance for fake news, lies or cyberbullying. A 14-year old kid working in Newark, New Jersey in 1978 invented email. This settlement honors that innovation.”
There has been very little dispute to Ayyadurai’s claim of being the inventor of email — leading technology experts have endorsed the statement, and there have been at least two extensive research papers prepared by university professors and scientists backing the honor. The doctor filed suit against TechDirt.com on Jan. 4 for allegedly defaming him in 14 different articles published from September 2014 through November 2016.
Ayyadurai is seeking a minimum of $15 million in damages in the new lawsuit, according to a press release.
He holds four degrees from MIT, including a Ph.D., and is a globally celebrated systems scientist, inventor and entrepreneur. Ayyadurai has founded and served as the chief executive of several companies, including CytoSolve, Systems Health and EchoMail. He has contributed to major scientific journals, such as IEEE, Nature Neuroscience, CELL’s Biophysical Journal, and has authored 10 books, including the newly-released “The Future of Email,” which discusses the history of email, its present and its future.
