Kill Switches, Violence, and Macron: Uber’s Document Leaks Explained
“Sometimes we have problems because, well, we’re just fucking illegal.”
Ride-share behemoth Uber has been rocked by allegations that the company secretly lobbied governments, flouted transport laws, and used secret “kill switches” to hide data from police raids.
The allegations come as over 100,000 documents were leaked to investigative journalists at The Guardian, including conversations between Uber executives and French President Emmanuel Macron.
The documents are dated between 2013 and 2017 when the company was still helmed by co-founder Travis Kalanick, illuminating the ride-share app’s relentless pursuit of disrupting the taxi industry, no matter the cost.
Uber Used Software To Keep Police From Accessing Data In Raids
Back in 2015, Uber’s rapid global expansion meant that the start-up would often spread to countries before they had legislation in place to govern the new app — with employees regularly referring to Uber’s “other than legal status” in internal emails.
During global efforts to shut down the ride-share app in Thailand and India, Uber’s head of global communications Nairi Hourdajian even went as far as saying “sometimes we have problems because, well, we’re just fucking illegal” in a message to a colleague.
Police raids of Uber offices were not uncommon, with the leaked documents showing that the company used software that prevented police from accessing the main Uber data terminals in the event of a raid. These “kill switches” were reportedly used in over twelve raids in France, the Netherlands, Belgium, India, Hungary and Romania.
A spokesperson for Uber told The Guardian that the software was officially approved by the company’s legal department, but were regularly used by businesses and designed “not to obstruct justice”.
Uber Allegedly Exploited Protest Violence
Due to Uber’s stated mandate of disrupting the taxi industry, conflict between ride-share operators and cab drivers was hardly unexpected by company executives. However, the leaked documents show that Uber actively exploited predicted violence at protests between cab drivers and Uber employees to help push governments to legislate the service.
As reported by The Guardian, during taxi driver protests in Paris, then CEO Travis Kalanick encouraged Uber drivers to participate in a counter-protest. When an executive raised fears that drivers would face violence from “right-wing thugs”, Kalanick said that “I think it’s worth it”. “Violence guarantee[s] success. And these guys must be resisted, no?” said Kalanick in the leaked documents.
Reporters with The Guardian have suggested that Uber routinely capitalised on violence experienced by drivers to push governments to legalise their service. Internal company documents supposedly show how Uber drivers in Amsterdam — after being targeted by masked assailants armed with knuckle dusters and hammers — were encouraged to file police reports by company staffers.
“We keep the violence narrative going for a few days, before we offer the solution,” one manager wrote in a leaked email.
While The Guardian reports that the leaked emails suggest that this technique was repeated in similar incidents across Europe, Uber has emphatically denied endorsing violence of any kind.
Emmanuel Macron Helped Broker Deals For Uber While Minister
French President Emmanuel Macron has also been tied to the recent leaks, with leaked exchanges showing that the French politician went to extreme lengths to broker deals for Uber while he was serving as economy minister.
The documents suggest that Macron allowed Uber staff frequent access to his ministry, and at one point even told the company that he had brokered a “secret” deal with Uber’s opponents in French cabinet.
After a French police official appeared to ban one of Uber’s services in Marseille, Macron told a company lobbyist that “I will look at this personally”.
“At this point, let’s stay calm.” Macron additionally texted the Uber lobbyist.
So far, The Guardian hasn’t reported that any of the leaked documents pertain to Uber’s launch in Australia during 2012.
In a general statement reacting to the investigation, Uber said that “We have not and will not make excuses for past behaviour 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”.