Zoë Schiffer
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zoeschiffer.bsky.social
Zoë Schiffer
@zoeschiffer.bsky.social
65K followers 300 following 200 posts
Director of Business & Industry at WIRED. Author of Extremely Hardcore: Inside Elon Musk’s Twitter. Signal zoeschiffer.87
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zoeschiffer.bsky.social
oh no
September 30, 2025 at 6:38 PM
zoeschiffer.bsky.social
Judge Blocks DOGE From Laying Off 90 Percent of CFPB. By @peard33.bsky.social: www.wired.com/story/cfpb-t...
In a court filing to Jackson on Friday, an anonymous employee said Gavin Kliger, a member of Trump’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency, managed the disputed layoffs of nearly 1,500 workers. “He kept the team up for 36 hours straight to ensure that the notices would go out yesterday (April 17),” the anonymous worker wrote. “Gavin was screaming at people he did not believe were working fast enough to ensure they could go out on this compressed timeline, calling them incompetent.”
April 18, 2025 at 6:43 PM
zoeschiffer.bsky.social
First official day at WIRED! If you work at a big tech company, an AI startup, or DOGE (a girl can dream), let’s talk:
Zoeschiffer.87 on Signal
January 13, 2025 at 4:27 PM
zoeschiffer.bsky.social
Very excited for this tomorrow! If you're in the South Bay, come by.
Tuesday, March 5, 4:30-5:30 McClatchy
March 4, 2024 at 11:54 PM
zoeschiffer.bsky.social
Here’s the scene in question:
As he was closing the acquisition, Musk told his official biographer, Walter Isaacson, that he would “hunt every single one of” Twitter’s executives and directors “till the day they die.”1 These statements were not the mere rantings of a self-centered billionaire surrounded by enablers unwilling to confront him with the legal consequences of his own choices. Musk bragged to Isaacson specifically how he planned to cheat Twitter’s executives out of their severance benefits in order to save himself $200 million. Isaacson described the scene as follows:
March 4, 2024 at 7:55 PM
zoeschiffer.bsky.social
Elon Musk: this is just about repeated, targeted harassment of a particular person
March 1, 2024 at 2:38 PM
zoeschiffer.bsky.social
X added specific language to its harassment policies to reduce the visibility of posts that deadname or misgender. Here’s Elon Musk reassuring Chaya Raichik of Libs of TikTok she won’t be banned:
Elon Musk: you’re not going to get suspended
March 1, 2024 at 2:35 PM
zoeschiffer.bsky.social
The New York Times reviews Extremely Hardcore: www.nytimes.com/2024/02/16/b...
Schiffer offers a more detailed look under the smoke-filled hood in “Extremely Hardcore,” taking her title from a memo Musk sent to Twitter’s staff shortly after acquiring the company. “The attributes that made Musk good at tweeting — a combination of recklessness and shamelessness — made him exceedingly bad at running Twitter,” Schiffer writes, deploying a crisp, matter-of-fact style to excellent effect. We get to see Musk’s Twitter through the eyes of some of his employees, including one who liked that Musk was making life at the company more relentless and “cutthroat,” and so was all the more shocked when he was fired, ostensibly for leaking to Schiffer, which he didn’t do.
February 16, 2024 at 3:01 PM
zoeschiffer.bsky.social
And here’s me on how I chose my main characters:
Schiffer: I come from a labor reporting background. In some ways, I’m not the most natural tech reporter, in that the thing I'm most interested in is the people. I wanted to tell the story of the demise of this important social app, and also the company culture and the people who worked there. And I specifically wanted to tell it through someone who really didn't like Twitter 1.0, and didn't fit in there, and then was really excited about Elon coming in. And then I wanted to tell the story of someone who stuck it out for different reasons, and maybe wasn't as huge a fan of Elon. One of my main characters is JP Doherty, the former global director of Twitter Command Center. I knew when I met him that I wanted him to be part of it. He has a really compelling personal story. He had to stay at Twitter because his son, who has health issues and is on his insurance, was having an important surgery in January of ‘23. JP rose up the rinks under Elon despite having serious misgivings about wh
February 16, 2024 at 1:08 AM
zoeschiffer.bsky.social
Here’s Kurt on Jack Dorsey:
Wagner: Yeah, I don't think his leadership style would necessarily be for me, either. He's very hands-off. He's very much a guide, if you will. He doesn't like to make the decisions. He likes to guide people there through questions. And for me, that's not how I would personally prefer to operate. But I do think for all of his flaws as a business leader, he had good intentions. I do think in Silicon Valley there's something to be said about that because not all leaders are doing it for the right reasons, so to speak. And if you want to give Jack some credit, I think he should maybe get some credit there. He's someone I would actually love to spend time with. From everything I've heard, he's got a really great sense of humor. He's quite witty, a little sharp elbowed, but in a fun way, if he likes you. So I think he would be quite fun to have dinner with.
February 16, 2024 at 1:08 AM
zoeschiffer.bsky.social
X is responding to a report from the Tech Transparency Project that it’s been accepting payments from known terrorist organizations. After the report came out, the company rushed to remove blue check marks from most of the accounts in question:
X has a robust and secure approach in place for our monetization features, adhering to legal obligations, along with independent screening by our payments providers. Several of the accounts listed in the Tech Transparency Report are not directly named on sanction lists, while some others may have visible account check marks without receiving any services that would be subject to sanctions. Our teams have reviewed the report and will take action if necessary. We’re always committed to ensuring that we maintain a safe, secure and compliant platform.
February 14, 2024 at 9:37 PM
zoeschiffer.bsky.social
Do we though?? @jay.bsky.team 😂
Officially, we simply call posts on Bluesky “posts” because they are a common component in the underlying protocol (the AT Protocol) and will show up in many different kinds of client apps. It’s a topic of debate for our current users, though.
May 1, 2023 at 6:51 PM
zoeschiffer.bsky.social
Y'all Chrissy Teigen has arrived this is for real
April 28, 2023 at 1:27 AM
zoeschiffer.bsky.social
Aww!
April 27, 2023 at 10:19 PM