Uber’s dark secrets exposed as the ride-hailing firm used its secret relationships with prominent European politicians, including the French president Emmanuel Macron while he was the nation’s economy minister, for its aggressive global expansion, according to a leaked cache of over 100,000 documents.
The “Uber Files” were originally shared with The Guardian and the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) after being leaked to them. These conversations between Uber’s top executives are documented in memos, presentations, notebooks, emails, iMessages, and WhatsApp conversations.
According to the claims, the Uber Files, which include over 124,000 internal documents from 2013 to 2017, demonstrate how the firm sought to secure hidden backing from top politicians in Europe, including prime ministers, billionaires, oligarchs, and media barons.
According to BBC News, Mr. Macron was “on first name terms with Uber’s controversial boss Travis Kalanick” while taxi drivers in the nation staged occasionally violent protests against the company. This is one area of the investigation that focuses on Mr. Macron’s interactions with Uber executives while he was the minister of the economy.
There are rumors that some senior Uber executives tried to use the violent protests to their benefit.
According to reports, Mr. Kalanick had texted other firm executives, “Violence guarantees success,” and added that the risk to drivers’ safety during such protests was “worth it.”
Former European Union (EU) digital commissioner Neelie Kroes, one of Brussels’ top officials, was also allegedly in negotiations to join Uber before her tenure expired and subsequently surreptitiously lobbied for the company.
According to reports, Uber and an advising company also created lists of more than 1,850 “stakeholders” in 29 nations and the EU, including current and former governmental officials, think tanks, and citizens groups.
According to the ICIJ, Uber executives met with public authorities over 100 times between 2014 and 2016, including 12 times with members of the European Commission that were not made public.
The records imply that Uber employed “stealth technology” just to evade investigations.
According to the ICIJ investigation, the business allegedly employed a “kill switch” to prevent authorities from accessing Uber servers and from gathering evidence during searches in at least six different countries.
“Please hit the kill switch ASAP”. During a police search in Amsterdam, Mr. Kalanick allegedly remarked, “Access must be shut down in AMS (Amsterdam)”.
In response to the ICIJ report, Uber said that since Dara Khosrowshahi took over as the organization’s CEO after Mr. Kalanick resignation in 2017, it had “moved from an era of confrontation to one of collaboration.”
“We have not and will not make excuses for past behavior that is clearly not in line with our present values. Instead, we ask the public to judge us by what we’ve done over the last five years and what we will do in the years to come ,” according to a statement from Jill Hazelbaker, senior vice president of marketing and public affairs at Uber.
Uber’s alleged unlawful behavior has also been refuted by a spokesperson for Mr. Kalanick.
“Mr Kalanick never suggested that Uber should take advantage of violence at the expense of driver safety. Any accusation that Mr Kalanick directed, engaged in, or was involved in any of these activities is completely false,” the spokesperson said.
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SOURCE: NEWS AGENCIES
