In India, the word “Uber” has gone from being a brand name to a verb in under ten years. Once a fledgling company in Silicon Valley, today it is worth $44 billion and has offices in 72 countries.
However, a leak suggests that the company may have evaded rules, lobbied legislators, and exploited loopholes in order to rapidly expand into numerous major worldwide markets. The ‘Uber Files’ obtained by The Guardian and shared with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) allegedly contain 124,000 internal emails, texts, and documents from within Uber.
The leaked files, which were reviewed by The India Express, allegedly shed light on former CEO Travis Kalanick’s time at the helm of the company. Kalanick resigned in 2017 amid allegations that he fostered a toxic work environment and ignored allegations of gender discrimination and sexual harassment. The time span covered by the leaks is from 2013 to 2017.
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One such file purportedly details how Uber in India refused to accept responsibility for a driver who was accused of raping a 25-year-old customer in New Delhi in December 2014, instead blaming the country’s “flawed” criminal database.
Nairi Hourdajian, head of communications at Uber, emailed a colleague, “Remember that everything is not under your control and that sometimes we have difficulties because, well, we’re just f***ing illegal,” after the event sparked panic within the India unit.
It has also been said that Uber employs a “kill switch” to prevent software from being accessible during government raids. The Uber management team finds out that its offices may be raided and issues a directive to the IT department to disable all network access. The ability of law enforcement to collect evidence is severely hindered.
At least twelve separate raids in India, France, the Netherlands, Belgium, Hungary, and Romania revealed this strategy in use, according to The Guardian. The Regional Transport Office conducted a raid on its Bengaluru location in 2014 and a second search on the same location in July 2021 due to reports of non-compliance.
Macron and Biden’s Relationship with Uber
The Uber papers reveal how the corporation collaborated with government officials in many countries to displace the local taxi industry. For instance, the papers apparently demonstrate the ties between CEO Kalanick and French President Emmanuel Macron, who allegedly aided the firm in France while he was economics minister. Macron “appears to have gone to remarkable lengths to support Uber, even informing the firm he had struck a secret ‘deal’ with its opponents in the French government,” as the article puts it.
It has been reported that Uber’s former CEO encouraged his workers by stating, “I think it’s worth it… Violence guarantee[s] success,” while the company’s drivers were in danger during taxi strikes and rioting in Paris.
It appears that Kalanick also collaborated with current US Vice President Joe Biden and former German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who was mayor of Hamburg, to help extend the company’s activities. Apparently, after meeting with the former CEO, Biden changed his scheduled speech at Davos to laud Uber and the firm for allowing drivers the “freedom to work as many hours as they choose, manage their own lives,” according to the stolen papers.
What Uber Has to Say
Uber released a statement in response to The Guardian’s breach, in which it acknowledged “mistakes and failures” but claimed to have “changed” itself since 2017. Dara Khosrowshahi now serves as the company’s CEO.
However, a representative for Kalanick stressed that the CEO never advocated profiting off of violence “at the expense of driver safety,” refuting the leaks’ assertion.
