What are the UberFiles? 124000 leaked documents expose a history of suspect practices
Uber are under fire once again. A Guardian investigation has yielded 124,000 confidential documents, exposing Uber’s compromising business practices over the past decade.
The documents consist of emails, iMessages, and WhatsApp exchanges between Uber senior executives. The leak also included memos, presentations, notebooks, briefing papers and invoices.
The investigation, published in collaboration with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), has been shared with hundreds of journalists around the world.
What we know so far
According to the Guardian’s initial report, the leaked documents reveal how Uber ‘broke the law, duped police and regulators, exploited violence against drivers and secretly lobbied governments across the world.’
This included:
Secret lobbying of politicians including: then Vice President, Joe Biden; then Economic Minister, Emmanuel Macron; and multiple Tory cabinet ministers.
Offering powerful figures ‘prized financial stakes’ in the company.
Paying academics to produce research that supported Uber’s economic claims
Encouraging drivers to engage in ‘mass civil disobedience’ in the face of taxi driver strikes
Using violence against their drivers as a tool to lobby governments.
Blocking police and regulatory authorities from accessing their data using a ‘killswitch’
The communications also show that many of the senior leaders within Uber were well aware that the company were not operating in a compliant, or even legal, manner.
Leaked internal emails revealed comments such as ‘[Uber’s] other than legal status’ and ‘We have officially become pirates.
In an email from 2014, Uber’s head of global communications, Nairi Hourdajian, said, “Sometimes we have problems because, well, we’re just fucking illegal.” Unsurprisingly, when the Guardian contacted Hourdajian, she declined to comment.
Uber’s Response
Within hours of the leak being published, a statement was published on Uber’s website in response. Published by Senior Vice President of Marketing & Public Affairs, Jill Hazelbaker, they stress how much of the leak is not new news.
The statement reads:
“There has been no shortage of reporting on Uber’s mistakes prior to 2017. Thousands of stories have been published, multiple books have been written—there’s even been a TV series.
Five years ago, those mistakes culminated in one of the most infamous reckonings in the history of corporate America. That reckoning led to an enormous amount of public scrutiny, a number of high-profile lawsuits, multiple government investigations, and the termination of several senior executives.”
They make it very clear that much of what has been revealed in the leak was under the leadership of then-CEO Travis Kalanick. Under the leadership of Dara Khosrowshahi, Kalanick’s replacement, they say Uber is a completely different company to the one exposed in the leak.
“Dara rewrote the company’s values, revamped the leadership team, made safety a top company priority, implemented best-in-class corporate governance, hired an independent board chair, and installed the rigorous controls and compliance necessary to operate as a public company”
However, the stories that have been published so far are just the tip of the iceberg. Over the coming days and weeks, expect to see reports from every news outlet imaginable.
The Guardian team have shared the leaked documents with 180 journalists in 29 different countries. They say this is the best way to expose ‘wrongdoing’ and demand ‘better from the powerful’.
It’s clear from Uber’s closing remarks that they are bracing themselves for a media storm like they’ve never faced before.
“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.”
Whether or not the public will heed their wishes remains to be seen.
As we know more, we’ll be sure to keep you updated!