‘Whatever It Takes’: eBay Cyberstalking Doc Releases Clip From Shocking Silicon Valley Scandal
variety.comDiego Ramos Bechara editor The first clip for the SXSW Film Festival documentary, “Whatever It Takes,” about two journalists targeted in a Silicon Valley Scandal, has been released in conjunction with its festival screenings.
The clip shows journalists Ina and David Steiner — who are the targets of an online harassment campaign, subjected to cyberstalking threats and bizarre deliveries — receiving what appears to be a pig fetus, the first of many abnormal packages. “We got your order for the ‘wet specimen,'” a phone operator says in the clip.
When the Steiners follow up to ask what exactly a “wet specimen” is, Ina turns to the audience to reveal that the operator told her that it’s a “pig fetus.” “So we asked her, what’s a ‘wet specimen,’ and she goes, ‘Oh, it’s a pig fetus.'” The clips also show the Steiners being on the receiving end of many online expletive-laced messages.
The documentary follows the real 2019 case, where eBay, the Fortune 500 company founded on the principle that “people are basically good,” and members of their security team ended up in federal prison after trying to protect the CEO from a corporate raider. “It’s a true crime caper about dysfunction, the disintegration of ethics and a couple of unsuspecting journalists whose lives are changed forever,” the doc’s description reads.
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