They Were Terrorized by a Tech Company. When Will They See Justice?
A newly available documentary, ‘Whatever It Takes,’ examines eBay workers’ plot to cyberstalk journalists and critics.
By David Streitfeld
Death was the dominant message. EBay’s people sent the Steiners a funeral wreath. A copy of “Grief Diaries: Surviving Loss of a Spouse.” A bloody pig mask worn by killers in the “Saw” horror movies.
To be threatened is bad enough; to be threatened anonymously is much worse. The Steiners had no clue who hated them this much. They piled up baking pans on a laundry cart at the back door so an intruder would make a noise. They slept in separate beds so one would survive an attack long enough to call the police...
“Whatever It Takes: Inside the eBay Scandal,” a 90-minute documentary directed by Jenny Carchman, shows how a mom-and-pop business 3,000 miles from eBay’s San Jose headquarters provoked such hostility. The film, which debuted at a film festival in 2024 but became widely available only last month, takes its title from an eBay executive’s text message to the security team about silencing the Steiners...
“You are seeing a company that lost its mind,” David Steiner told me.
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/13/technology/ebay-documentary-scandal-whatever-it-takes.html