The ride-hailing giant Uber used its covert relationships with prominent European politicians, including the French president Emmanuel Macron when he was the nation’s economy minister, for its aggressive international expansion, according to a leaked cache of over 100,000 documents.
The “Uber Files” were first shared with The Guardian and the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists after being leaked to them (ICIJ). These conversations between Uber’s top executives are documented in memos, presentations, notebooks, emails, iMessages, and WhatsApp conversations.
According to the reports, the company tried to covertly win the support of prominent politicians in Europe, including prime ministers, billionaires, oligarchs, and media barons, through the use of over 124,000 internal documents produced by Uber between 2013 and 2017.
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 advantage.
According to reports, Mr. Kalanick had texted other company executives, “Violence ensures success,” and added that the risk to drivers’ safety during such protests was “worth it.”
Neelie Kroes, a former European Union (EU) digital commissioner and one of Brussels’ top officials, is said to have been in secret negotiations to work for Uber before her term ended.
According to reports, Uber and an advisory firm also created lists of more than 1,850 “stakeholders” in 29 nations and the EU, including current and former public officials, think tanks, and citizens groups.
According to the ICIJ, Uber executives met with public officials over 100 times between 2014 and 2016, including 12 times with members of the European Commission that were not made public.
According to the documents, Uber allegedly employed “stealth technology” to evade authorities.
According to the ICIJ report, the company allegedly used a “kill switch” to prevent authorities from accessing Uber servers and from seizing evidence during raids in at least six different countries.
Please press the kill button right away. During a police raid in Amsterdam, Mr. Kalanick allegedly said, “Access must be shut down in AMS (Amsterdam).
In response to the ICIJ investigation, Uber claimed that since Dara Khosrowshahi took over as the organization’s CEO after Mr. Kalanick left in 2017, it has “moved from an era of confrontation to one of collaboration.”
“We haven’t and won’t offer justifications for past actions that are obviously inconsistent with our current values. Instead, Jill Hazelbaker, senior vice president of marketing and public affairs at Uber, urged the public to assess the company based on its performance over the previous five years and its future plans.
A representative for Mr. Kalanick refuted claims that Uber broke the law.
Mr. Kalanick never advocated for Uber to exploit violence at the expense of driver security. Any claims that Mr. Kalanick oversaw, participated in, or was otherwise connected with any of these activities are wholly untrue, the spokesperson insisted.
