Discussion

• @mcuban Mark Cuban on bluesky

  If you worked for 18F and got fired, Group together to start a consulting company.  —  It's just a matter of time before DOGE needs you to fix the mess they inevitably create.  —  They will have to hire your company as a contractor to fix it.  But on your terms.  —  I'm happy to …

• @emptywheel @emptywheel on bluesky

  One way you can tell that DOGE is not doing what they claim they are, modernizing tech or finding waste, is bc Trump and DOGE have ousted 3 entities who ALREADY WERE DOING THAT. @donmoyn.bsky.social describes two here, USDS and 18F.  —  The third are the IGs.  —  donmoynihan.subs…

• @rparloff Roger Parloff on bluesky

  The US Doge Service's ostensible purpose, per the EO creating it, was “modernizing Federal technology and software to maximize governmental efficiency & productivity.”  It's doing the opposite, per @donmoyn.bsky.social  —  donmoynihan.substack.com/p/skilled- te...

• @digiphile Alexander Howard on bluesky

  “Musk is not just destroying core government functions, he is also destroying the actual tech capacity of government”— @donmoyn.bsky.social  —  donmoynihan.substack.com/p/skilled- te... The end of one era, where techies joined to improve .gov, & a spark for another, where civic h…

• @ariellaelm Ariella Elm on bluesky

  Youve never heard of @team18f.bsky.social but if you've ever used a govt website, you have them to thank for it running smoothly.  —  And they were all just fired.  —  I have a feeling this is not something that R voters and constituents can twist, so I recommend sharing their st…

• @skiles John Skiles Skinner on bluesky

  I got laid off today, with the rest of 18F.  —  18F was an elite federal software shop.  We made gov't websites work better, more efficiently for the American people.  We saved taxpayers from getting screwed over by contractors.  And were fired for it.  —  We made this website to…

• @kigongo Patrick Kigongo on bluesky

  MTV True Life: my entire federal agency was shuttered last night.  18F is gone; GSA sent an email at 10pm PT/1am ET notifying all 90 employees that our 18F has been eliminated and that we're now all subject to a reduction in force (RIF).  18F (2014-2025).  [image]

• @justinhendrix Justin Hendrix on bluesky

  18F staffers- who were summarily fired en masse overnight- issue statement expressing shock, bewilderment:  —  “18F was doing exactly the type of work that DOGE claims to want - yet we were eliminated.”

• @reckless Nilay Patel on bluesky

  Some the smartest and most civic minded technologists I've ever met were 18F folks [embedded post]

• @amandarenteria Amanda Renteria on bluesky

  Tech infrastructure is invisible so we can't see what is happening.  But if we could, it's like dismantling & changing the railways in the early 1900s at the peak of their power.  They are changing where funding goes, how it flows, who drives it, but no one can see it. www.nextgo…

• @joshtpm Josh Marshall on bluesky

  Confirming what others have discussed or reported, 18F, the elite tech consultancy within TTS/GSA, was formally disbanded overnight.  There's a formal RIF, the legal system in which the government downsizes/layoff people.  I'm told it's 60 days on leave for all involved.

• @lorak Lora Kolodny on bluesky

  Trump & DOGE have directed the GSA to ax 18F www.nextgov.com/people/2025/ ...

• @danhon.com Dan Hon on bluesky

  Just one of the things the now-deleted 18F was working on *yesterday*: helping ensure public access to weather data.  [embedded post]

• @yoz Yoz Grahame on bluesky

  18F was the best team I've ever worked with, better than anything I've experienced in the private sector.  —  18F was vital in improving services, but there was a vision behind it that meant a huge amount to me as an immigrant: to help cure America of its uniquely bizarre psychos…

• @paleofuture Matt Novak on bluesky

  18F is the latest example of something you wouldn't cut if you really cared about efficiency.  They're just destroying the government.  [embedded post]

• @joshtpm Josh Marshall on bluesky

  2/ A key goal of 18F was to provide state of the art end user experience for usg websites.  So basically making sure public facing websites that the American people must use are super user friendly and effective.  In other words, something really important at many levels.

• @makenakelly Makena Kelly on bluesky

  Woke up to messages from GSA sources that around 90 technologists in the 18F division were RIF'd via an email that went out around 1am.  —  “There are no other TTS programs impacted at this time, however we anticipate more change in the future.”  —  Source sent this pic of the gr…

• @tomcoates Tom Coates on bluesky

  I know a bunch of past and present 18F employees.  Absolutely clueless and awful move, but then which of their moves aren't. [embedded post]

• @bcmerchant Brian Merchant on bluesky

  Unconfirmed but federal sources telling me that everyone at 18F, the digital services agency in GSA singled out by Musk and right wing activists for having openly inclusive policies and employing LGBTQ workers and people of color, has been given an RIF layoff notice as of midnigh…

• @annabower Anna Bower on bluesky

  The Trump administration has laid off the entire 18F office, a digital services unit within the General Services Administration, per email shared with me.  —  “This decision was made with explicit direction from the top levels of leadership within both the Administration and GSA,…

• @anildash.com Anil Dash on bluesky

  I had a front row seat to watch 18F get started a dozen years ago by some of the smartest and most dedicated public servants I've ever met.  Their work saved countless lives, and yes, hundreds of millions, probably billions, of dollars.  But just as significantly: it made governm…

• @rdpiazza Rebecca Piazza on bluesky

  Mourning 18F's elimination as a former employee but even more so as a former 18F agency customer.  Unlike DOGE, 18F did the hard work of cultural transformation and sharing their methods with other Feds as they helped improve services.  They weren't just techies, they were teache…

• @ezra.im Ezra Mechaber on bluesky

  18F charged other government agencies for their work, helped transform the teams they worked with to prevent future contracting boondoggles, and are, like, *the* team you would point out if you wanted better tech outcomes in government.  —  🚶 [embedded post]

• @donmoyn Don Moynihan on bluesky

  DOGE is dismantling all aspect of civic tech in the federal government - both 18F and the US Digital Service were the hubs for skilled technologists who wanted to improve public services.  They are now being pushed out of government.  [embedded post]

• @waldo.net Waldo Jaquith on bluesky

  The work that I led at 18F I naturally feel was really important (I hope all 18Fers felt the same way about their work): codifying the procurement principals that we'd all identified there over the years.  I thought this would have a tiny audience.  Instead it became a foundation…

• @nick.scialli.me Nick Scialli on bluesky

  Given that 18F was cost-recoverable, this will save taxpayers literally zero dollars.  —  There is no “efficiency” gained here.  Only destruction.

• @mmasnick Mike Masnick on bluesky

  This is tragic.  Anyone who was familiar with 18F knows those were some of the real heroes of government, who helped make government tech/digital services better for the public.  —  They were doing real work that DOGE pretends to do, but is too ignorant to know how to do.  [embed…

• @amandalitman Amanda Litman on bluesky

  18F did things like making online government forms (like filing your taxes or submitting VA claims) easier to fill out, create text message notification systems for govt agencies, and streamlining internal data sharing.  They were literally making govt more efficient & user-frien…

• @sjhoo Skipjack Hoo on bluesky

  18F was actually a major center of government contracting innovation.  This is yet another short-sighted and potentially illegal move.  [embedded post]

• @dansinker.com Dan Sinker on bluesky

  18f were a bunch of badasses who actually *did* make government more efficient in a way that actually worked.  And they did it while also being good people who cared deeply for the work, for each other, and for the people that used it.  [embedded post]

• @schock.cc Sasha Costanza-Chock on bluesky

  Eliminating 18F while saying you're trying to modernize government using technology is like eliminating doctors while saying you want to improve health care... Oh wait they're also doing that  —  www.nextgov.com/people/2025/ ...

• @ugarles @ugarles on bluesky

  18F was created because someone finally said “what if instead of adding more layers of bureaucracy or complaining generically about cost, we hired overqualified people to scrape off the process barnacles that make government systems kludgy” and Republicans' immediate reaction was…

• @rmac Ryan Mac on bluesky

  18F, a digital services unit inside the General Services Administration, has been completely laid off, according to an email I've seen.  The email says that 18F was deemed “non-critical” and the decision was made with the “explicit” direction of the administration and GSA leaders…

• @waldo.net Waldo Jaquith on bluesky

  18F, the federal government's technology shop, was demolished by Musk's team shortly after midnight.  It was a cost-recoverable org, charging agencies for their expertise, using a consulting model.  Its cost to government was negligible, its benefits huge.  My team there once sav…

• @waldo.net Waldo Jaquith on bluesky

  18F is *precisely* what Musk and team claim should exist within government.  But when his team found it, they destroyed it, because it is evidence that government works well (can't have that!), and because like Zelensky, 18F didn't bend the knee.

• @mstarace@mastodon.social Mike on mastodon

  John Skiles Skinner @skiles.bsky.social‬  —  I got laid off today, with the rest of 18F. 18F was an elite federal software shop.  We made gov't websites work better, more efficiently for the American people.  We saved taxpayers from getting screwed over by contractors.  And were …

• @heidilifeldman@mastodon.social Heidi Li Feldman on mastodon

  With Trump and Vance making the U.S. a pariah among democracies, less attention gets paid to their ongoing destruction of U.S. federal government.  As part of that effort, they've fired more civil servants today.  Here's what that group says in response. https://18f.org/

• @anirvan@mastodon.social Anirvan Chatterjee on mastodon

  WTF?!  —  I'm dumbfounded.  —  DOGE just murdered 18F ( https://18f.gsa.gov/) — the government digital improvement team that's the LITERAL DEFINITION of scrappy tech-enabled government modernization.  —  Any rational Trump/Musk administration would take over 18F, rename them “DOG…

• r/politics r on reddit

  Mark Cuban offers to fund government tech unit that was cut in the middle of the night |  TechCrunch

• r/fednews r on reddit

  All of 18F was just RIF'd. The whole office, fired.

• r/Ohio r on reddit

  18F: We are dedicated to the American public and we're not done yet

• r/centrist r on reddit

  18F: We are dedicated to the American public and we're not done yet