Inside Elon Musk's illegal drug use, and the years-long concern of some leaders at Tesla and SpaceX - especially, lately, about his use of ketamine. Some directors have taken drugs along with him. An investigation w/ the great
@EmilyGlazer
Activision CEO Bobby Kotick told an employee he would have her killed. He kept an exec from being fired after a sexual harassment claim. He didn't tell his board of alleged rapes and other misconduct. Our
@WSJ
investigation
@benfritz
@saraheneedleman
:
Sheryl Sandberg TWICE used her clout at Facebook to stop the Daily Mail from running a story about a restraining order against her then-boyfriend. The boyfriend: Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick
Soon after being appointed to co-head one of Activision's most successful units, Blizzard, longtime exec Jen Oneal sent a scathing internal email, saying she didn't think leadership could fix the culture problems. She said she had been sexually harassed and wanted to resign.
Since CA filed suit against Activision Blizzard in July, the company has received more than 500 internal reports of sexual harassment, assault and other issues. It's been facing an EEOC investigation and a new SEC investigation, as we reported
We've looked at dozens of internal documents and spoken to many, many people over these months. A story like this isn't possible without incredible sources. We can't thank you enough for your bravery.
Under Kotick, Activision's game studios were allowed to operate on their own, creating cultures that a spokeswoman told us led to some employees conducting themselves in "truly regrettable ways." Employees were told to keep quiet, even as execs sent out laudatory farewell notes.
Google, the gatekeeper of the internet, wants you to believe its algorithms are autonomous and objective. They're not. Read our year-long investigation:
Salesforce is still paying the actor Matthew McConaughey $10 million a year to act as a "creative adviser" despite thousands of layoffs, multiple activist investors. Terrific reporting on the breakup of the tech "family" from
@cityofthetown
@katiebindley
Zuckerberg and other FB execs forced Palmer Luckey to publicly support Gary Johnson instead of Trump before he was ultimately fired,
@keachhagey
and I reported in 2018
Google restored more than 52 THOUSAND links after we went to them with our investigation, and yet the tech giant says the process of removing content from its search engine isn't broken, w/ the great
@anfuller
@joe_palazzolo
Video game giant Activision Blizzard, under intense pressure from shareholders/partners/employees over its culture, pulled numbers on workplace misconduct/investigations. CEO Bobby Kotick held it back from the public
This isn't just about the glass house in Texas anymore - federal prosecutors are looking at perks Tesla has paid Elon Musk going back years - and they've referenced a grand jury w/
@rfelliott
@EmilyGlazer
Last year, we reported on his ketamine use. This goes far beyond that, and puts billions of dollars in federal contracts at SpaceX at risk, as well as $1 trillion held by investors, and tens of thousands of jobs tied to Musk's companies.
There was a reason Google co-founder Sergey Brin filed for divorce from his wife earlier this year: Elon Musk. Your mid-summer beach read from me and
@EmilyGlazer
In Tony's Hsieh's last months, he spiraled into drug and alcohol abuse, starving himself amid a new group of friends in Utah. His friends and family staged interventions, and he was on his way to rehab. Our deep dive on the life of the Zappos co-founder
Over the last year, Meta has been investigating (and firing) its own employees and contractors for hijacking FB and Instagram accounts, sometimes for thousands of dollars in bribes. The contractors: security guards. From me and
@bobmcmillan
Inside the life of Nicole Shanahan, 'Silicon Valley princess:' drugs (cocaine and ketamine), affairs (Sergey Brin + Elon Musk), and a $1 billion divorce settlement powering RFK Jr.'s campaign. All the details she's kept from the public here:
I've had an amazing 12 years
@WSJ
and I will always love the paper and its people, but I'm really excited for this new adventure (also an extremely unbiased endorsement from
@jbsgreenberg
here ;)
We went deep on the murder of Bob Lee in San Francisco and here's what we found: an underground scene of sex and drugs that brought the beloved tech executive closer to his alleged killer w/
@katiebindley
@ZushaElinson
Read our November investigation into Kotick, and how he didn't inform Activision's board of directors of some misconduct allegations across the video game giant, including rape (Kotick has said he has kept his board informed)
In the temporary restraining order, an ex-girlfriend of Kotick's alleged he harassed her at her house including trying to get in, according to a transcript we saw. (She has since told people privately that some of the allegations were exaggerated or untrue)
You know what would really help this issue, is if
@elonmusk
would respond to numerous detailed fact-checking/comment request emails/texts that reporters send days, sometimes weeks or months in advance of stories. I sometimes send physical mail, no joke. There is no PR
Our investigation of the largest marketplace for online sitters, , reveals little vetting of nannies, fake daycare listings, caregivers with prior criminal records, and some devastating stories
@GZuckerman
@shaneshifflett
The 250 internal Facebook emails released today can be synthesized like this: Facebook does not care about your data privacy, but it does care about making money from your data
And if you missed it last year, here's our investigation into how Google quietly changes search results, faced with immense political and business pressure
Facebook fired top virtual reality executive Palmer Luckey after an anti-Hillary Clinton donation and also pressured him to voice his support of Gary Johnson in the 2016 presidential election w/
@keachhagey
On the night of the fire in Connecticut, Tony asked to go to a shed and used a heater to lower the oxygen. He asked housemates to check on him every five minutes. They couldn't get in.
@katherinesayre
@JamesRHagerty
When searching for a video on Google, the tech giant gives a secret advantage to YouTube (which it owns), over videos posted from Facebook, Amazon or other providers, our investigation found. The company does it in part to help YT leverage business deals.
Facebook allowed Microsoft’s Bing search engine to see the names of virtually all Facebook users’ friends without consent, and gave Netflix and Spotify the ability to read Facebook users’ private messages. Blockbuster scoop by
@nytimes
Hundreds of outside groups and individuals are quietly lobbying Facebook and Twitter execs behind the scenes about different users and policies on their platforms, it's just not disclosed. My deep dive here:
Airbnb employees in charge of user safety have wanted to do more to police the platform over the years - and have been overruled. In time for your holiday plans, our investigation into the Silicon Valley giant
Before his November death, Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh was surrounded by an entourage that enabled his drug use and shielded him from friends, all while living off his fortune. A heartbreaking investigation from me and
@katherinesayre
Also new info on the shareholder pressure: One investor, Fidelity International, sent a letter to Activision's board with a list of demands and warned it could divest or join w/ other shareholders if they're not met. NY Comptroller also has written. Board has stood by Kotick.
Really excited that our book on the late, beloved entrepreneur Tony Hsieh is coming out from
@simonschuster
on March 15. The book will reveal much about his mysterious death in 2020, but also detail his extraordinary life
@katherinesayre
Reading Dark Towers by
@davidenrich
and I think it might be the best book about a dodgy bank since I wrote one! But seriously get this book from my former editor
The way accounts are being abused is through an internal Meta channel known as "oops," which is supposed to be a way for employees to help friends and family get accounts back. Even security guards had access to Oops, as a perk of working at Meta.
@sal19
also big help on this one
is changing its entire business model following our March investigation and will now give all its caregivers in-depth background screening.
@GZuckerman
@shaneshifflett
With virtually no customer service for 3 billion users at Meta, Oops has become a critical way for users to get an account back, sometimes through intermediaries who claim they have a contact at Instagram or Facebook
Google is under constant pressure from powerful interest groups, big advertisers and governments around the world to change results, and it sometimes does. More so since the election.
And yes! Google uses blacklists we found, far more than has been reported. It just doesn't disclose it. That's the main problem - it doesn't disclose how it's making any of these changes/decisions.
A former top FBI official left his executive job at Airbnb because of how much user data they give China. When he complained internally, one co-founder told him "we're not here to promote American values." w/
@dnvolz
Inside Elon Musk's plans to build a town - or maybe even a city! - on farmland outside Austin. A mayor might be elected. And Kanye was consulted. Big team effort w/
@bykowicz
@rfelliott
@thetrough
I've actually spent quite a lot of time in the last two years writing about ketamine. The vast dangers, as told through the story of Tony Hsieh of Zappos, who died in 2020
Theranos, 2015: "Today’s Wall Street Journal story about Theranos is factually and scientifically erroneous and grounded in baseless assertions by inexperienced and disgruntled former employees and industry incumbents."
Before Twitter made the controversial decision to keep Alex Jones on its platform in August, CEO Jack Dorsey privately reached out to conservative activist Ali Akbar for counsel. "Jack was brave," says Mr. Akbar
We tested a bunch of search terms for hot button issues like abortion and politicians like Donald Trump - the differences in what Google shows, especially in auto-complete, are clear.
"Friendly fraud:" the term Facebook employees used internally to describe when kids spend money on their video games w/out parents permission. This is crazy story
One more note on our story today: While Google releases an annual "transparency report" about links it takes down,
@anfuller
spent months digging through Google data and tens of thousands of takedown notices in a Harvard database for us to get the full picture.
Thousands of pregnant women across the Bay Area truly believe the "prego pizza" will induce labor. Does it? I interviewed many of them to find out
@WSJ
Ahed
Facebook said it shut off access to vast amounts of user data in 2014. Now it says some developers got special access after that: "But other than that, things were shut down" w/
@dseetharaman
As the DOJ files its antitrust suit against Google, please allow me to resurface our long investigation into search, and how it controls the Internet
@samschech
@JohnWest
@bobmcmillan
California Sober: our in-depth look at drug culture across Silicon Valley, including Elon Musk's ketamine use. It's not just him though - everyone's doing it, and a reminder: many psychedelics are still illegal w/
@katiebindley
Internally, Sergey Brin and Larry Page have themselves disagreed on how much to intervene (read through for a key bathroom scene!) and employees are always lobbying for changes on, you guessed it, the message boards
Hard to believe, but it's been 10 years since Washington Mutual collapsed, the biggest bank failure during the financial crisis and the largest in U.S. history -still. Might I recommend an award-winning book on the subject:
For all the problems at Jack Dorsey's Twitter, at least they had some rules. At Musk's Twitter, Kanye can just call in a favor. Our deep dive, almost a year after the takeover
@georgia_wells
@AlexaCorse
Inside the bizarre tale of corporate intimidation at eBay: a CEO determined to take down critics, a years-long effort to remove negative content and the harassment of small town bloggers w/ cockroaches and a bloody pig mask w/
@SebasAHerrera
A very brave former female employee of one of Activision Blizzard's studios spoke to our podcast today, also more on the fallout from our investigation
@Ryan_Knutson
Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick has been pulled into a criminal insider trading probe related to trades ahead of the MSFT deal announcement in Jan. Regulators are examining at least one mtg Kotick had w/ one of the traders
@davidamichaels
Also take issue w/ the fact that Musk has "spoken freely" about ketamine - this reporting took months and months and he only admitted it after we published
Instead of jumping into the crazy real estate market, why not buy a town instead, like this one in the middle of nowhere. It even has a train and a ghost!
@WSJ
ahed
Our
@WSJ
colleague, Evan Gershkovich, has been locked in a Russian jail for two weeks now for doing his reporting job. We stand with his family in demanding his immediate release
#IStandWithEvan
Having trouble finding a place to house your new homeschool pod? In Berkeley, one family built a dome (previously used for Burning Man of course). My
@WSJ
ahed
Very proud to be part of Team
@WSJ
right now for many reasons, but special kudos today to colleagues who won
@SABEW
awards, and particularly those who produced the great Tech coverage that was recognized. It's a privilege to work with the best in the biz
Twitter’s Jack Dorsey: ice baths, minimalism, and a love of talking to anyone, including internet troll Charles Johnson. But he’s less involved in managing, including the decision to block NY Post stories. Our in-depth profile here
@georgia_wells
Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg at spring hearing: "I can't be clearer on this topic: We don't sell data." But behind the scenes, the company discussed doing just that w/
@dseetharaman
There are a lot of similarities to what happened to Tony Hsieh, the beloved Zappos CEO who died after mental health and drug issues in 2020. But the stories are also very different. You can read my book w/
@katherinesayre
if you're interested in Tony
🎧 Listen: In today's episode of The Journal podcast,
@KirstenGrind
explains how Airbnb has been forced to face questions about how much responsibility it has for safety at properties listed on its site after a deadly mass shooting
The president of PETA showed up at Google to give a talk about how animals face prejudice. What happened next shows the absurdity of Silicon Valley culture w/
@dmac1
Activision Blizzard employees stage a walkout and call for CEO Bobby Kotick's resignation, while the company's board released a statement of support following our investigation
In their letter today, Google founders say their core service is "providing unbiased, accurate, and free access to information." Our year-long investigation says otherwise:
Blockbuster scoop from
@dmac1
@bobmcmillan
: Google opted not to disclose a Cambridge Analytica-style incident earlier this year that exposed the private data of hundreds of thousands of its users:
After our investigation, is changing some aspects of how it does business - how soon caregivers can get on the site and how it alerts members when there's a problem. And it's taking down fake day care center listings we found
Two colleagues and I spent months reporting on allegations of sexual misconduct at Activision and what CEO Bobby Kotick knew and did about them. I hope you’ll read the story we just published. I’ll also thread key findings…