Sarah Frier

Sarah Frier

@sarahfrier.bsky.social

In charge of big tech coverage at Bloomberg Author of NO FILTER: The Inside Story of Instagram Email me at sfrier1 at Bloomberg dot net

21,267 Followers 135 Following 40 Posts Joined Apr 2023
2 months ago
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The Startup Making Human Embryos With AI-Assisted Robots Conceivable’s automated lab has helped bring 19 babies to life. Is it better at IVF than humans are?

NEW: I met the robots creating human embryos. And after two years following the company, wrote a different kind of robots versus humans story than I expected: tinyurl.com/ynt5chy7

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3 months ago
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AI Slop Recipes Are Taking Over the Internet -- And Thanksgiving Dinner Food bloggers see traffic dip as home cooks turn to AI, inspired by impossible pictures

NEW: AI “recipe slop” is overrunning search and social. Food creators say Google’s AI Overviews and glossy fake food pics are drowning out real, tested recipes — collapsing traffic and setting home cooks up for disaster, especially this Thanksgiving.

Gift link: www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

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3 months ago

I was so triggered while editing. What a waste of sauce!

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3 months ago
YouTube’s Right-Wing Stars Fuel Boom in Politically Charged Ads

By 
Davey Alba
Priyanjana Bengani
Leon Yin
Ashley Carman
Julia Love
Rachael Dottle
Elena Mejía Technology

Big Tech

November 20, 2025

On YouTube’s conservative airwaves, podcast hosts tout products that let people buy into the MAGA crowd: Republican Red Winery vintages for toasting the “silent majority;” Black Rifle Coffee for caffeinating gun owners; XX-XY Athletics for workout clothes symbolizing opposition to the “lunacy of the left social agenda.” The popularity of YouTube podcasts among conservatives is driving a boom in small businesses tailoring ads to their millions of listeners, paying hosts like Joe Rogan and Candace Owens to read out promotions in the hope that fans will place orders. The phenomenon has enriched both the hosts and YouTube, supporting further growth of the businesses using ideology to sell.

A Bloomberg analysis of host-read ads across nearly 1,000 videos from eight of the platform’s top right-leaning podcasters found that advertisers on the shows routinely tapped into political identity in marketing. At least one host-read ad with a political message appeared in 91% of videos reviewed.

NEW: For months, my colleagues and I dug into YouTube's conservative airwaves and found a flourishing network of host-read ads on right-leaning podcasts. This phenomenon has enriched hosts, YouTube, and businesses that use ideology to sell. bloom.bg/3Kaio9w

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7 months ago
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people have been sending me the cover of this former Meta exec’s upcoming book…

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8 months ago

"several people are typing"

this has been the last 4 days in a nutshell

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9 months ago
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Is Elon Musk’s Political Capital Spent? Donald Trump’s right-hand man is telling everyone he wants to get back to business. On this week’s episode of Elon, Inc., we discuss what may be behind it.

new podcast in which @sarahfrier.bsky.social and i puzzle through Trump's pulling Elon's pick for NASA, the, uh, ketamine question, and the black eye enjoy www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

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9 months ago

What a week!

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9 months ago
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On the Campaign Trail, Elon Musk Juggled Drugs and Family Drama

NEW: Megan Twohey and I went deep on Elon Musk’s intense drug use as he rose to political power alongside Trump last year. He was using so much ketamine that he told people it was affecting his bladder. At SpaceX, he is getting warnings ahead of drug tests www.nytimes.com/2025/05/30/u...

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9 months ago

White House responds to our story: “The drugs that we’re concerned about are the drugs running across the southern border.” No comment on whether Musk’s been drug tested or if Trump was aware

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9 months ago
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Mark Zuckerberg Loves MAGA Now. Will MAGA Ever Love Him Back? Meta’s CEO has done everything he can to win over Trump, and it’s not clear how much he has to show for it.

Mark Zuckerberg has done everything he can to win over Trump, and it’s not clear how much he has to show for it. Read The Big Take

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9 months ago
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Mark Zuckerberg Loves MAGA Now. Will MAGA Ever Love Him Back? Meta’s CEO has done everything he can to win over Trump, and it’s not clear how much he has to show for it.

President Biden called Mark Zuckerberg "Little Twerp" and "Fuckerberg” www.bloomberg.com/news/feature... @rileyraygriffin.bsky.social @kurtwagner.bsky.social

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9 months ago
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Mark Zuckerberg Loves MAGA Now. Will MAGA Ever Love Him Back? Meta’s CEO has done everything he can to win over Trump, and it’s not clear how much he has to show for it.

🚨 New Businessweek Feature 🚨

What is behind Mark Zuckerberg's rightward swing toward President Trump?

I'd wager it's less about personal politics, and more about a finely tuned sense of self-preservation... w/ @rileyraygriffin.bsky.social

www.bloomberg.com/news/feature...

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9 months ago

Thanks! Could be the AI-based content moderation running away with itself

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9 months ago
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Everybody's Business Business News Podcast · Updated weekly · Bloomberg Businessweek brings you a smart and fun chat show about all things...business. Hosted by award-winning business and economics journalists Max Chafkin...

A 50% tariff on Europe?! 🧀🍝🍷 How Trump uses pro-wrestling theatrics to run the economy. The latest ep of #EverybodysBusiness is out! @chafkin.bsky.social and I talk kayfabe w/ @kyla.bsky.social

Then @sarahfrier.bsky.social joins to talk AI & jobs 🤖

podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/e...

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9 months ago
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Wrestling with Taxes, Robots and Gold Podcast Episode · Everybody's Business · 05/23/2025 · 35m

New episode of everybody’s business! Featuring @kyla.bsky.social on WWEconomics and @sarahfrier.bsky.social on AI! Give us a shot and subscribe!! podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/e...

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9 months ago
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Why Apple Still Hasn’t Cracked AI Insiders say continued failure to get artificial intelligence right threatens everything from the iPhone’s dominance to plans for robots and other futuristic products.

NEW: Why Apple Hasn’t Cracked AI — The inside story of Apple’s generative AI and Siri failures, setbacks that threaten everything from the iPhone's dominance to plans for future products. www.bloomberg.com/news/feature...

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9 months ago
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Everybody's Business A smart and fun chat show about all things business. Hosted by award-winning business and economics journalists Max Chafkin (author of The Contrarian: Peter Thiel and Silicon Valley’s Pursuit of Power...

hey hey, me and @svaneksmith.bsky.social made a new podcast for @bloomberg.com. it's about business. its smart. its fun. we'll tell you stuff you don't know but should. it comes out each week and we NEED you to subscribe and tell your friends. link.podtrac.com/rzj316uq

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9 months ago
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New podcast alert 🚨 I’m very excited to be hosting a new podcast with the great @chafkin.bsky.social for @businessweek.bsky.social @bloomberg.com Please give a listen and let us know what you think! 🎧 (banana pudding strongly encouraged but not required)

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9 months ago
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Political Pundit Hasan Piker Questioned by US Customs at Airport Hasan Piker, an online political commentator, was stopped and questioned by US Customs and Border Protection agents after returning to the country from France, he said his Twitch livestream Monday.

New: Political commentator Hasan Piker says he was briefly detained by US Customs and Border Protection, questioned about his views on Hamas and Trump. First reported by @taylorlorenz.bsky.social. www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

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10 months ago
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Google Places Ads Inside Chatbot Conversations With AI Startups Google’s ad network has begun showing advertising within the flow of conversations with chatbots — part of Alphabet Inc.’s efforts to keep its edge in digital advertising as generative artificial inte...

Scoop on the Google beat: Google has begun showing advertising within the flow of conversations with chatbots, starting with AI search startups like iAsk and Liner. This means that even if Google's share of the search market dwindles, it still stands to profit. bloom.bg/436FhkR

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10 months ago
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New from me: Here's a fun lil earnings scoop 🚨

There was an $8 billion increase in profit in Alphabet's latest report that was just nagging and nagging at me. The accounting didn't make sense. Finally got to the bottom of it: the boost came from unrealized gains from a 2015 investment in SpaceX.

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10 months ago
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The Guy Who Connected Donald Trump to the Manosphere John Shahidi is a big part of why young men turned out to vote for Trump.

And then @sarahfrier.bsky.social told the real story of how Trump came to the manosphere -- it wasn't Barron, it was a guy named John Shahidi, who found quite a niche for himself www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

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10 months ago

This is absolutely wild to see come out on record in federal court after reporting it in my book 5 years ago (Systrom has been silent on the acquisition and aftermath in that time). Details he is sharing took me months to report out and confirm.

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10 months ago
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It’s Legal to Pay US Workers With Disabilities as Little as 25¢ an Hour Whether it stays that way is up to Trump.

NEW Businessweek feature: The US gives permission to pay people with disabilities below minimum wage. Biden tried to end program. Employers urging Trump preserve it say they've gotten private signals he will.

Based on 1000s of pages of records & 150 interviews: www.bloomberg.com/news/feature...

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10 months ago
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Zuckerberg’s Jealousy Held Back Instagram and Drove Off Founders The Facebook CEO promised Kevin Systrom independence, but an excerpt from Sarah Frier’s book No Filter shows that only lasted until Instagram started to look like the favorite son.

Here’s a gift link to the book excerpt if you need a refresher: www.bloomberg.com/news/feature...

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10 months ago

Thank you!!

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10 months ago
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Zuckerberg Says He Considered Spinning Off Instagram in 2018 Mark Zuckerberg considered spinning off Instagram into a separate company in 2018 as he increasingly became concerned that the photo and video app’s success was hurting the Facebook social network.

But it is crazy to see stuff I had from various sources get confirmed by internal documents/emails. Also!! This is new to me, and not in my book: www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

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10 months ago

Just saying, if you read No Filter, you would have known about Zuckerberg getting jealous of Instagram’s growth (& why the founders left) long before this FTC trial

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11 months ago
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Trumpland vs. Elon vs. Tariffs Elon, Inc. · Episode

And hear Max, @danahull.bsky.social, @sarahfrier.bsky.social, @kurtwagner.bsky.social and others talking more Musk every week on Elon, Inc. open.spotify.com/episode/3Amn....

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