Federal employees in a lesser-known office dedicated to high-tech and consulting services were working when Elon Musk first tweeted about the agency on the afternoon of February 3rd.
“The group has been deleted.” The mask was written.
The world's wealthiest man had responded to a tweet from a right-wing activist who mistakenly claimed that the 18th floor within the General Services Agency (GSA) was a left and right cell within the government. Activists accused the 18th floor of creating a programme that would take care of bureaucrats to prepare people's tax returns. This was one of several false claims about the offices circulating on X, the social media platform Musk owns and spends much of his day.
Musk's tweet quickly sparked widespread confusion on the 18th floor. This is not a radical leftist cabal, but is tasked with partnering with government agencies to consult and develop software solutions. Former staff and current GSA employees described the 18th floor as a workforce focused on providing high-tech services and improving efficiency within the bureaucracy. Mask's so-called “government efficiency” (DOGE) is designed to perform accurately.
The confusion lasts for several weeks. On Saturday, March 1st, staff on the 18th floor received an email around 1am, informing them that everything would be fired and closed “in an explicit direction from the top level of both the administration and the GSA leadership.”
The 18F episode fits a common pattern that appears to be amplifying masks by ingesting misinformation online. It is also a window into the influence of right-wing media and activists on Musk when he attacks and disbands some of the government that he believes does not fit the ideological worldview.
For a week after cutting the 18F, the recently appointed director of GSA's Technology Transformation Services, which oversees the 18F, held a meeting explaining the decision. Thomas Shed, a 28-year-old former Tesla software engineer and Musk's ally who sent the mass layoff email, told staff that the 18th floor had been shut down. Employees' hourly wages were too high And external consultants will be cheaper. Shedd did not respond directly to requests for comment on this article.
“After a thorough review of the 18th floor, the leadership of the GSA has determined that the business unit is not in line with President EOS, following consent from the administration and all OPM guidelines.
The explanation, according to former staff, not only misunderstands how the 18th floor operates and how its cost structure operates, but also ignores the frequent savings of agents by advising private vendors on costs and unnecessary contracts. Instead, former employees and current staff at GSA thought the layoffs were politically motivated.
“The only reason I can see when 18F is chosen to be eliminated in front of other offices is to make Elon Musk happy,” said a GSA employee who spoke anonymously out of fear of retaliation.
Misleading tweets and musk destiny workers dedicated to government efficiency
The 18th floor worked with various government agencies to create popular services, but little known to the public. The group quietly helped create dozens of services each year for various stations, including the IRS direct file free tax return system. Many 18F software projects, including streamlining government weather websites for easy use in the event of natural disasters, have a clear intention to make government services more efficient and reduce taxpayer costs.
When Musk claimed he “deleted” 18F, he was retweeting a February 3 post from right-wing activist Alex Rorsso, producer of conservative media influencer Benny Johnson. Musk of X, and the one courted by Donald Trump's administration. he I'm working As a paid consultant for Musk's Super PAC, he is also a fan. His first post on X profile is a 2023 photo of a mask and laughing, pinned to the top so that others don't push out in the sight.
Lorusso's post allegedly claiming that the 18th floor is “in charge of preparing people's tax returns,” suggesting that it is “a far left government wide computer office.” His claims about 18F were later revised by other X users in the Community Notes. Instead, the office explained that it helped Americans build a service that would allow them to file taxes online for free. Set to extended Nationwide.
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According to a former employee, the Russian attack on the 18th floor included a misleading statement. Daily Wirewriters refused to insert facial recognition software into the government's website login.gov for “racial equity,” so 18F claimed 18F's at-risk security for Americans on 18F. The claim blended several different parts of the GSA and misinterpreted security issues with facial recognition, said one former employee, with 18F denounced leadership decisions related to completely different business units.
The GSA faced a legitimate scandal when former Technology Transformation Services Director Dave Zvenyach misrepresented the level of security operated by Login.gov, but Login.gov was an independent entity from the 18th floor and had no direct staffing with the office. According to a former 18F employee, facial recognition software is well known for not being able to recognize non-white faces, and using it as an identity verification tool creates security issues for users, resulting in racial stock testing of facial recognition technology.
“I think it's impossible to imagine people putting their partisans aside while they work for the government,” the former 18F employee said in response to conservative vitriol against the 18F.
Some former staff members following a massive layoff on the 18th floor Set up your website They attempt to revise the right-wing narrative that their group is partisan within the government, and instead highlight the various projects they have completed. Others warned that their group was an early warning sign of how the Doji and the Trump administration target other agencies based on ideological evidence, not on what they do.
“We lived through the evidence that the topic of this administration was wrong. Lindsay Young, former executive director of 18F, said in a LinkedIn post: “This targeted us.”
Source: www.theguardian.com