Inside eBay's alleged plot that targeted a blogging duo and a Twitter gadfly using cockroaches, porn, death threats, physical surveillance, and pizza deliveries
“People are basically good” was eBay's founding principle. But in the deranged summer of 2019, prosecutors say …
New York TimesDavid Streitfeld
Context & Ripple Effects
This long-form account lands at a pivot point in the eBay harassment story. In June 2020, six former eBay employees were charged over the campaign against the ECommerceBytes bloggers, and eBay confirmed that then-CEO Devin Wenig was the executive who allegedly ordered it — though Wenig was not charged. Four months later, just days before this piece ran, four ex-employees agreed to plead guilty while two senior executives involved denied wrongdoing.
First-order effects
The guilty pleas convert the campaign from allegation into admitted crime for the operatives who executed it, while the victims' civil suit now targets eBay itself, its former CEO, and other executives who face no criminal charges.
The reporting puts eBay's in-house security team's conduct — surveillance, threats, and harassment tactics aimed at critics — on the public record in detail, directly implicating how the company managed 'brand protection' during 2019.
Second-order effects
With subordinates pleading guilty and senior figures denying involvement while going uncharged, eBay faces an accountability-asymmetry problem: the civil suit against Wenig and others becomes the main venue where executive responsibility gets adjudicated.
Every disclosure about what the security team did raises due-diligence questions for eBay's board and insurers about oversight of corporate intelligence functions, pressuring the company to restructure or disclaim the unit's 2019 mandate.
Third-order effects
If the pattern holds — foot soldiers criminally convicted, architects left to civil courts — companies running internal threat teams will face structural pressure toward legal review of critic-monitoring work, since the current outcome shows operational staff absorbing the criminal risk.
The case is becoming a reference point for how far a corporation can be held liable for harassment campaigns run by employees acting on executive signals, with the victims' suit testing whether civil damages reach the top.
The trend: Corporate in-house security and intelligence teams are moving from unexamined brand-defense tools to legally accountable units, as prosecutions of eBay's operatives push the question of executive liability into civil litigation.
This @ebay story has been reported before, notably by the @wsj but this piece is a great example of first not necessarily being best. The details make the difference. And oh, what details. https://www.nytimes.com/...
Must-read @nytimes piece by @DavidStreitfeld on @ebay's toxic leadership culture in which then-CEO @devinwenig oversaw insane levels of victimisation of mom-and-pop critics. Like, being sent live cockroaches and stalked. How can he still be on @GM's board? https://www.nytimes.com…
“The scheme [...] was both completely malevolent and remarkably inept — full of daft assumptions [...] about a plot that did not exist. It stands as a warning about how easily tech companies can feel aggrieved, and the mayhem that can ensue when they do.” https://www.nytimes.com/…
Ebay's former CEO, Devin Wenig, instructed his underlings to “take down” a company critic. The underlings are now facing federal criminal charges. Wenig got a $57 million severance package and sits on the board of @GM. https://www.nytimes.com/...
Still thinking about what eBay executives did to people whom they thought made eBay look bad. Who damaged the company more? Also, eBay wouldn't even go so far as to issue a statement for this piece saying all this wasn't acceptable. https://www.nytimes.com/...
The eBay tale “stands as a warning about how easily tech companies can feel aggrieved, and the mayhem that can ensue when they do. And it vividly shows how the internet makes people crazy, often without them ever realizing it.” https://www.nytimes.com/...
So much happening in this stunning account by @DavidStreitfeld of eBay's heinous harassment campaign against the founders of @EcommerceBytes, I'm not sure where to start. https://www.nytimes.com/...
It is *still* mind-blowing to me that people from @eBay attacked Ina from @AuctionBytes. We used to read that all the time, back in the day. Feel so badly for the people hurt here. Just shameful. https://www.nytimes.com/...
“It seemed like a cult.” Here's @DavidStreitfeld with the crazy, jaw-dropping story of an out-of-control corporate security team with questionable taste in movies... Inside eBay's Cockroach Cult: The Ghastly Story of a Stalking Scandal https://www.nytimes.com/...
In addition to great investigative reporting, this is a chilling reminder of how malevolent people can be—and how social media, sadly, can amplify that malice. The take-away: in business, politics, etc., even when passionate, be humane, polite, kind. https://www.nytimes.com/...
Incredible article on @eBay harassment of critics. For every one of these harassment campaigns that gets caught, I've thought about the many that get swept under rugs or scrubbed from corporate files. https://www.nytimes.com/... CC: @stevewymer @devinwenig @fidomaster1
At the core of this objectively insane behavior is intense narcissism, the idea that what you do is so important and disruptive that it could be the object of a sinister conspiracy that you then must crush https://www.nytimes.com/...
how did i not know that ebay was targeting citizen critics and stalking and harassing them? this is bonkers! it's so coen bros-esque silly yet also terrifying that this can sanctioned by a silicon valley powerhouse. https://www.nytimes.com/...
Read this to the end not because it outlines an absolutely wild amount of tech power/panic but because you will lose your shit at the kicker that says where the CEO and CCO wound up: https://www.nytimes.com/...
Frankly I would not be surprised if more companies weren't doing stuff like this, slightly less amateurishly. Yes this is bizarro but also describes the way tech companies see themselves as infallible and work to crush any critique. https://www.nytimes.com/...
“I want to see ashes... As long as it takes. Whatever it takes.” I hope @DavidStreitfeld has already locked down the movie rights for this bizarre story of eBay's revenge squad. https://www.nytimes.com/...
This story is nuts. Senior eBay execs used clips from the (generally mediocre) Hollywood dude movies to brainwash the lower-level security employees into becoming criminals—and got away with it. Get you BA in the humanities to see thru this crap. https://www.nytimes.com/...
Could not put this one down. Wonderfully-told story of the insane campaign of harassment waged by tech executives at eBay, and reflective of the thin-skinned attitude I've seen across Silicon Valley to even the mildest of critics. https://www.nytimes.com/...
The only possible conclusion from another bonkers tale of eBay executives harassing a blogging couple is...just...WHY? eBay had thousands more important priorities than obsessing about a rando on Twitter and a couple who wrote a small website. https://www.nytimes.com/... https://…