Over 124,000 leaked confidential documents, aptly named the Uber Files, reveal that Uber dealt in illegal lobbying, flouted laws, duped police, exploited violence against drivers and did many more dubious things in the course of its aggressive expansion globally.
The unprecedented leak to the Guardian shows the ethically questionable practices that fuelled the company’s transformation into one of Silicon Valley’s most famous exports.
The leak is said to span a five-year period (from 2013 – 2017) under the leadership of co-founder Travis Kalanick, who tried to force the cab-hailing service into cities around the world, even if that meant breaching laws and taxi regulations.
The files also show how how Uber tried to garner support for its expansion into different countries by discreetly courting prime ministers, presidents, billionaires, oligarchs and media barons.
According to the leaked files, Uber executives were under no illusions about the company’s law-breaking, with one executive joking they had become “pirates” and another conceding: “We’re just fucking illegal.”
On Monday, Mark MacGann, Uber’s former Uber chief lobbyist for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, came forward to identify himself as the source of the leaked data. He leaked 18.69 GB of emails, text messages and company records to The Guardian. According to him, “It is my duty to speak up and help governments and parliamentarians right some fundamental wrongs. Morally, I had no choice in the matter.”
The 52-year-old Macgann admits he was part of Uber’s top team at the time – and is not without blame for the conduct he describes. In an exclusive interview with the Guardian, he said he was partly motivated by remorse.
“I am partly responsible,” he said. “I was the one talking to governments, I was the one pushing this with the media, I was the one telling people that they should change the rules because drivers were going to benefit and people were going to get so much economic opportunity.
In one exchange, Kalanick dismissed concerns from other executives that sending Uber drivers to a protest in France put them at risk of violence from angry opponents in the taxi industry. “I think it’s worth it,” he shot back. “Violence guarantee[s] success.
The leak also contains texts between Kalanick and Emmanuel Macron, who secretly helped the company in France when he was economy minister, allowing Uber frequent and direct access to him and his staff.
The Guardian led a global investigation into the leaked Uber files, sharing the data with media organisations around the world via the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ). More than 180 journalists at 40 media outlets including Le Monde, Washington Post and the BBC will in the coming days publish a series of investigative reports about the tech giant.
In Uber’s response to the leak, the company admitted to “mistakes and missteps”, but said it had been transformed since 2017 under the leadership of its current chief executive, Dara Khosrowshahi.
“We have not and will not make excuses for past behaviour that is clearly not in line with our present values,” it said. “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.”
Kalanick’s spokesperson said Uber’s expansion initiatives were “led by over a hundred leaders in dozens of countries around the world and at all times under the direct oversight and with the full approval of Uber’s robust legal, policy and compliance groups”.
Uber was founded as UberCab by Garrett Camp and Travis Kalanick in 2009. Uber’s mobile app launched in 2010 in San Francisco, on iPhones and Android phones. Its operations spans across over 80 countries.
