Taylor Lorenz

Taylor Lorenz (born October 21 c. 1984[lower-alpha 1]) is an American journalist. She is a columnist for The Washington Post. She was previously a technology reporter for The New York Times, The Daily Beast, and Business Insider, and social media editor for the Daily Mail. She is particularly known for covering Internet culture.

Taylor Lorenz
A woman wearing a sequined mask.
Lorenz in 2019
BornOctober 21, 1984[lower-alpha 1]
New York City, U.S.
Alma materHobart and William Smith College
EmployerThe Washington Post
Writing career
GenreJournalism
SubjectInternet culture
Websitetaylorlorenz.com

Early life and education

Lorenz was born in New York City[1][lower-alpha 1] and grew up in Old Greenwich, Connecticut, attending nearby Greenwich High School.[6] She attended college at the University of Colorado Boulder and later transferred to Hobart and William Smith College where she graduated with a degree in political science.[7][8] Lorenz has stated that the social media site Tumblr caused her to become interested in internet culture.[9]

Career

Lorenz worked as a social media editor for the Daily Mail from 2011 to 2014, becoming their head of social media.[10] After a short stint writing for The Daily Dot in 2014,[11] she was a technology reporter for Business Insider from 2014 to 2017.[12] In 2017, she wrote briefly for The Hill's blog section,[13][14] and was assaulted by a counter-protester[15] while covering the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.[16] From 2017 to 2018, she worked as a technology reporter for The Daily Beast.[17] From 2019 to 2022, she was a technology reporter for The New York Times.[18] In March 2022, Lorenz left The New York Times and joined The Washington Post as a columnist.[7][19]

In 2019, Lorenz was made a Visiting Fellow at Harvard University's Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society by the Nieman Foundation for Journalism.[20]

According to The Caret, her reporting is consumed frequently by "Silicon Valley venture capitalists, marketers and...anyone curious about how the internet is shaping the ways in which humans express themselves and communicate."[21] According to TheWrap, "since her time at the Times, she's attracted an inordinate amount of online criticism, particularly from those in the right-wing media."[22] Fortune stated that she has "cemented herself as a peerless authority" whose name became "synonymous with youth culture online" during her time with The Daily Beast and The Atlantic.[5] Reason magazine credited her with popularizing the term "OK boomer" in a story declaring "the end of friendly generational relations."[23]

Defamation lawsuit

In August 2021, Lorenz and The New York Times were sued by influencer talent agent and entrepreneur Ariadna Jacob for defamation in an August 2020 article about her company, Influences.[24] In September 2022, a judge initially dismissed many of the lawsuit's claims but allowed Jacob to amend her complaint. In June 2023, a Manhattan federal judge decided that the amended lawsuit could proceed.[25]

Twitter suspension

In December 2022, Lorenz's Twitter account was temporarily suspended by Twitter owner Elon Musk. Lorenz's temporary suspension from Twitter came after a series of suspensions of journalists under Elon Musk's ownership of Twitter.[26] Lorenz claimed she was suspended after asking Musk for comment on a story.[26] Musk later tweeted the suspension was for "prior doxxing action".[27]

Accolades

Lorenz was named to Fortune's 40 Under 40 listing for 2020 under the Media and Entertainment category.[5] That same year, Adweek included her in their "2020 Young Influentials Who Are Shaping Media, Marketing and Tech" listing, stating of Lorenz that she "contextualizes the internet as we live it."[28]

Extremely Online

In 2020, Lorenz secured a book deal for Extremely Online: The Untold Story of Fame, Power and Influence on the Internet.[29] Extremely Online was released by Simon & Schuster in October 2023.[30]

Libs of TikTok and accusation of doxxing

On April 19, 2022, The Washington Post published an article by Lorenz about the right-wing Twitter account Libs of TikTok and publicized the identity of the account owner as Chaya Raichik, an Orthodox Jew who worked in real estate. These details were retrieved from early iterations of the Libs of TikTok Twitter account.[31] The online version of the article initially included a link to Raichik's real estate license.[32][33]

The article proved controversial, with Lorenz accused of doxxing,[34] antisemitism for mentioning Raichik's religion,[35] and hypocrisy for having previously spoken out against online harassment.[36][37][38][39][40] Raichik herself accused Lorenz of doxxing and told the New York Post that she "will never be silenced".[39][41] Raichik also accused Lorenz of violating her right to free speech.[42] According to The Times of London, "supporters of Lorenz meanwhile pointed out that Raichik's followers were only too enthusiastic about doxing when it came to teachers being smeared as paedophiles."[43] In a tweet, Lorenz said that her "whole family was doxed again this morning...trolls have now moved on to doxing and stalking any random friends I've tagged on Instagram."[35] YouTuber Tim Pool and The Daily Wire CEO Jeremy Boreing purchased a billboard in Times Square to accuse Lorenz of doxxing. In response, Lorenz called the billboard "so idiotic it's hilarious".[44]

Lorenz argued that Raichik's information was already publicly available.[42]

Coverage of the Depp v. Heard trial

In June 2022, an article on the coverage of the Depp v. Heard trial by YouTube personalities written by Lorenz and published in The Washington Post claimed that two of the YouTubers discussed in the article, LegalBytes and ThatUmbrellaGuy, were contacted for comment prior to publication. Both YouTubers denied being contacted by Lorenz, prompting a series of editorial corrections to the article which eventually included an admission that stealth editing had violated the paper's policy.[45] In a tweet, Lorenz blamed the errors on a miscommunication with her editor, leading some critics to accuse her of buck passing. The tweet was discussed and agreed on by Lorenz and multiple editors according to three people with knowledge of the discussions.[22][46][47][48][49] The New York Times subsequently reported that Lorenz had been moved from the features staff to the technology team, and that Cameron Barr, a senior managing editor at The Washington Post, had "been asked to review her articles before publication".[48] Lorenz denied that she had moved teams, writing on Twitter, "I have absolutely not been demoted, not even remotely. My job has not changed at all."[22] She further asserted that news coverage of the errors by CNN and others was in "bad faith", "irresponsible and dangerous", and designed to "amplify a manufactured outrage campaign by right wing media & radicalized influencers, which is driving a vicious harassment/smear campaign against me."[47]

Personal life

In January 2015, Lorenz announced her engagement to Christopher Mims, a technology columnist at The Wall Street Journal.[50][51] In a 2022 interview with Zagat, Lorenz identified herself as vegan.[52] In an interview with MSNBC, Lorenz said that she has "severe PTSD" from experiencing online harassment.[35]

Notes
  1. According to Politico, Lorenz's birthday is October 21.[2] In February 2016, CBS News stated that she was 30,[3] in August 2018 – prior to her employment with the newspaper – The New York Times stated that her age was 31,[4] and in September 2020, Fortune listed her age as 35.[5]

References
  1. Esposito, Brad (February 8, 2021). "Very Fine Day #2: Taylor Lorenz". Very Fine Day. Archived from the original on March 11, 2021. Retrieved February 28, 2021 – via Substack.
  2. Sherman, Jake; Palmer, Anna (October 21, 2020). "Politico Playbook: New poll: Biden edges Trump on the economy". Politico. Archived from the original on March 5, 2021. Retrieved February 27, 2021. Birthdays: ... NYT's Taylor Lorenz ...
  3. CBS News staff (February 1, 2016). "Cries of "oh my God" heard on moving Amtrak train". CBS News. Archived from the original on April 17, 2021. Retrieved March 6, 2021.
  4. La Ferla, Ruth (August 29, 2018). "These Companies Really, Really, Really Want to Freeze Your Eggs". The New York Times. Archived from the original on February 3, 2021. Retrieved March 6, 2021.
  5. Fortune staff (September 2, 2020). "Taylor Lorenz | 2020 40 under 40 in Media and Entertainment". Fortune. Archived from the original on October 23, 2020. Retrieved September 3, 2020.
  6. Marchant, Robert (March 18, 2021). "CT native Taylor Lorenz got attacked on Twitter. She's not the only woman to face online harassment". Greenwich Time. Archived from the original on March 20, 2021. Retrieved March 24, 2021.
  7. Klein, Charlotte (February 1, 2022). "Taylor Lorenz Hopes The New York Times Will "Evolve in Their Ways" As She Leaves for The Washington Post". Vanity Fair. Archived from the original on February 23, 2022. Retrieved March 1, 2022.
  8. Roush, Chris (April 30, 2018). "Lorenz hired by The Atlantic to cover tech". Talking Biz News. Archived from the original on January 10, 2021. Retrieved February 28, 2021.
  9. Lammer, Aaron; Linsky, Max (August 19, 2019). "Longform Podcast #355: Taylor Lorenz". Longform.org (Podcast). Archived from the original on January 9, 2021. Retrieved January 8, 2021.
  10. Capital staff (July 18, 2014). "The 60-second interview: Taylor Lorenz, head of social media, The Daily Mail/Mail Online". Politico. Archived from the original on February 10, 2021. Retrieved February 28, 2021.
  11. "Taylor Lorenz". The Daily Dot. Archived from the original on September 7, 2022. Retrieved June 28, 2022.
  12. "Taylor Lorenz". Business Insider. Insider Inc. Archived from the original on October 23, 2020. Retrieved February 28, 2021.
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  20. "Nieman Foundation announces the 2019 Knight Visiting Nieman Fellows". NIEMAN NEWS. The President and Fellows of Harvard College. Archived from the original on July 10, 2022. Retrieved June 27, 2022.
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  24. Smythe, Christie (August 13, 2019). ""Canceled" TikTok influencer agent Ari Jacob is suing the New York Times for at least $6.2 million". The Business of Business. Archived from the original on July 8, 2022. Retrieved July 8, 2022.
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  29. "Lorenz Goes 'Online' at Simon & Schuster". Publishers Weekly. 2020.
  30. Rachel Seo (2023). "'Facebook F—ed Up': Taylor Lorenz Tells the Untold History of the Internet in Upcoming Book 'Extremely Online'". Variety.
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  40. Sarkar, Shankhyaneel (June 14, 2022). "Libs Of TikTok Receives Death, Bomb Threats, Alleges Twitter Staff Discussed Deplatforming Her". News18.com. Archived from the original on June 14, 2022. Retrieved June 14, 2022.
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