On Thursday, February 10, 2022, an Uber sign is visible inside a vehicle in Palatine, Illinois.
In Washington The ride-sharing company Uber aggressively expanded into new markets around the globe. Uber lobbied political leaders to loosen labor and taxi laws, used a “According to a report released on Sunday, the company used a “kill switch” to evade regulators and law enforcement, channeled money through Bermuda and other tax havens, and considered portraying violence against its drivers to win over the public.
Using internal Uber texts, emails, invoices, and other documents, the nonprofit network of investigative journalists known as the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists produced what it called “an unprecedented examination of how Uber violated workers’ rights and disregarded taxi laws.
The consortium received the documents after they were initially given to the British newspaper The Guardian.
in a written declaration. When stating that Uber is a different company today, we mean it literally because 90% of current Uber employees started working for the company after CEO Dara Khosrowshahi was hired in 2017. According to Uber spokesperson Jill Hazelbaker, the company has made “mistakes” in the past and that CEO Dara Khosrowshahi was “tasked with transforming every aspect of how Uber operates.”
When it was established in 2009, Uber aimed to circumvent taxi regulations and provide affordable transportation through a ride-sharing app. The Uber Files from the consortium made clear the extraordinary lengths the business went to in order to establish itself in close to 30 countries.
The documents reveal that the company’s lobbyists, some of whom were former aides to President Barack Obama, urged government officials to drop their inquiries, change the labor and taxi codes, and loosen the requirements for driver background checks.
According to the investigation, Uber utilized “In order to thwart government investigations, stealth technology is used. The business, for instance, utilized a “kill switch” that prevented law enforcement from accessing Uber servers and preventing them from seizing evidence during raids in at least six different countries. According to the Uber Files, former Uber CEO Travis Kalanick personally gave the following order during a police raid in Amsterdam: “Please press the kill button right away. Access needs to be blocked in AMS (Amsterdam).
The consortium also claimed that Kalanick viewed the aggrieved taxi drivers’ threats of violence against Uber drivers in France as an opportunity to win over the public. “Violence ensures success,” Kalanick texted to his coworkers.
According to Devon Spurgeon, a spokesman for Kalanick, in a statement to the consortium, the former CEO “never advocated for Uber to exploit violence at the expense of driver protection.
According to the Uber Files, the business allegedly saved millions of dollars in taxes by routing profits through Bermuda and other tax havens “sought to divert attention from its tax obligations by assisting government tax collection from its drivers.
