NY Times’ technology reporter Taylor Lorenz has written a Twitter thread begging for help because she is being treated rudely by a man named Balaji Srinivasan on Twitter:

https://twitter.com/TaylorLorenz/status/1278387331033174018

Wow, that does sound mean. What’s up with that guy?

https://twitter.com/TaylorLorenz/status/1278387561065598976

The self pity goes on for several more tweets and plenty of people are chiming in to say supportive things about how sexist this is:

this is sexist and disgusting and i am sorry you have to deal with this

— David Mack (@davidmackau) July 1, 2020

There’s just one problem. Taylor Lorenz strategically cut off Srinivasan’s tweet so you can’t see what he was responding to. Here’s his original tweet, including the part Lorenz left out. Notice where he pulled this language from.

As you can see, Srinivasan was paraphrasing what Taylor Lorenz tweeted about a woman CEO named Steph Korey. Korey was making some critical remarks about “younger reporters” while also saying that “the overwhelming majority of journalists are dedicated and wonderful truth seekers.” And for that, Lorenz lashed out at her. So if Srinivasan’s tweet seemed harsh, he was really just turning Lorenz’ own words back on her.

When challenged about her characterization of Steph Korey’s comments as “incoherent” Lorenz defended the integrity of journalists.

https://twitter.com/TaylorLorenz/status/1278330965132271616

Some pointed out that even if Lorenz stands by what she said, leaving out the fact that Srinivasan was paraphrasing her own words was pretty dishonest.

.@TaylorLorenz I like you and respect your work, but leaving out the rest of that screenshot where its clear that @balajis is simply repeating the same words you wrote to bash a woman CEO, is exactly illustrative of his larger point. https://t.co/V2lq5kF0EV

— Siqi Chen (@blader) July 1, 2020

Others were more blunt:

https://twitter.com/harshmadhusudan/status/1278420195585867776

There’s also the hypocrisy of her stance on reaching out to people privately if you have an issue with them. Did she do that with Korey before tweeting about her?

Taylor Lorenz, @balajis parodied you attacking & picking on another founder:
– You bashed her fully coherent opinion as incoherent
– You incorrectly denigrated her title—could've just googled
– You're not reaching out to her privately

Practice what you preach! Enough is enough. https://t.co/thfldOMkGV

— Suhail (@Suhail) July 1, 2020

Here’s Srinivasan’s summary of the incident:

Taylor Lorenz:

– Attacks a female CEO out of the blue
– Made a factual error (@stephkorey is still Away CEO!)
– Violated NYT social media guidelines
– Then omits her own attack & plays victim (https://t.co/y2NlFb3Lf0)

This is how it works. These "journalists" are sociopaths. pic.twitter.com/Jum5FLB7pH

— balajis.com (@balajis) July 1, 2020

I was curious if we’d ever written anything about Taylor Lorenz and it turns out we have. Last year she wrote a piece for the Atlantic which listed a bunch of right-wing extremists being banned by Instagram:

In an effort to contain misinformation and extremism that has increasingly spread across the platform, Instagram has banned several prominent right-wing extremists.

Specifically, Instagram and its parent company, Facebook, have banned Alex Jones, Infowars, Milo Yiannopoulos, Paul Joseph Watson, Laura Loomer, Paul Nehlen, and Louis Farrakhan…

That piece did get corrected after publication so that Farrakhan is no longer identified as a right-wing extremist. Since moving to the NY Times, Lorenz seems to cover news about YouTube influencers and TikTok. Here’s a sample of her most recent piece on the social justice efforts to deplatform Shane Dawson and Jeffree Star:

This weekend, the YouTube beauty world erupted into drama. Shane Dawson, 31, and Jeffree Star, 34, two of the biggest stars on the platform, faced renewed backlash after allegations of racism, the sexualization of minors and back-stabbing swirled. The public call-out has resulted in an unfollow campaign that has led to both losing hundreds of thousands of followers…

“For the longest time Jeffree and Shane have been untouchable,” said Will Larkins, a 15-year-old who provides commentary on internet drama and has been documenting these events on his Twitter handle @OhMyGodExposeU. “They’ve gotten away with everything. I think people are finally fed up and realizing that we can’t just keep giving people like this a platform.”…

As many older white millennial beauty influencers lose relevance, a newer, more diverse crop of creators is stepping in. “You have YouTubers like Raw Beauty Kristi, Jackie Aina, Nyma Tang, who are not problematic, and that’s just to name a few,” said Ashlye Kyle, 35, who runs a YouTube drama channel focused on the beauty world. “I think that they’re going to gain more influence.”

If you want the latest drama straight from the YouTube influencer world, you know where to get it. But if you want a straight recounting of why someone is saying mean things about Taylor Lorenz on Twitter, her Twitter feed may not be the bet place to get the full story.