“Woah, did you guys see this?” said Scorch. “Thousands of Uber files have been leaked to the public earlier this month. Uber is a transport company. About 124,000 records, including 83,000 emails and 1,000 other files, became public. It revealed private conversations that happened between 2013 and 2017.”
“Woah,” said Orak. “Was it a cyberattack?”
Scorch answered, “No, they were leaked by former Uber Lobbyist Mark MacGann. Lobbying is a term common in the business and political world. It means to influence a politician or the government. A lobbyist is a person who helps companies to get what they want from the government or a politician.
According to the leaked documents and emails, Uber broke laws, fooled the cops, and lobbied politicians and governments. Uber recruited politicians to help disrupt Europe’s taxi industry. It also came up with ways to avoid justice.”
“Shocking!” Felix exclaimed.
Scorch continued, “Let me tell you about a few of these deals. When Uber was launched in France, it was met with resistance. French taxi drivers protested against Uber. But back then…. politician Emmanuel Macron (now the President of France) knew Uber’s boss Travis Kalanick. Macron told Kalanick that he would change the law to favor Uber.
In another incident, former European Union (EU) digital commissioner Neelie Kroes secretly helped Uber. It is alleged that Kroes, who is from the Netherlands, passed Uber’s messages to the office of Dutch Prime Minister, Mark Rutte. During this period, Kroes was already in talks to join Uber.
Kroes also helped Uber deal with police raids. She called Dutch ministers and other members of the government to convince them to back down during the raid.”
“I have no words,” Verum said.
“There’s more,” Scorch added. “Uber had a ‘kill switch’. It means it would shut down its systems during police raids. It stopped the cops from accessing the company’s computers. The kill switch was used in countries such as India, the Netherlands, France, Canada, Belgium, and more.”
“Uber really went to shocking lengths to avoid justice and achieve its goals,” Felix noted.
“What was Uber’s reply to these revelations?” Orak said.
Scorch replied, “In 2017, Travis Kalanick was forced out of Uber. Uber said that the new executive Dara Khosrowshahi was tasked with changing every aspect of the company. Uber said that it is not the same company it was in the past.”