‘Kill switch’: Uber used stealth tech to avoid regulation around the world: report

As Uber aggressively pushed into markets around the world, the ride-sharing service lobbied world leaders to relax labor and taxi laws, used a “kill switch” to hide evidence and thwart law enforcement, channelled money through Bermuda and other tax havens, and considered portraying violence against its drivers as a way to gain public sympathy, according to a report released overnight.

The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, a nonprofit network of investigative reporters, scoured internal Uber texts, emails, invoices, and other documents to deliver what it called “an unprecedented look into the ways Uber defied taxi laws and upended workers’ rights”.

The documents were first leaked to the British newspaper The Guardian, which shared them with the consortium.

Founded in 2009, Uber sought to skirt taxi regulations and offer inexpensive transportation via a ride-sharing app. The consortium’s “Uber Files” reveal the extraordinary lengths that the company undertook to establish itself in nearly 30 countries.

Its lobbyists — including former aides to President Barack Obama — pressed government officials to drop their investigations, rewrite labor and taxi laws, and relax background checks on drivers, the papers show.

French President Emmanuel Macron was identified as a key ally when he was his country’s economy minister, the investigation says, and was regularly contacted for help by Uber executives.

In a written statement. Uber spokesperson Jill Hazelbaker acknowledged “mistakes” in the past and said CEO Dara Khosrowshahi, hired in 2017, had been “tasked with transforming every aspect of how Uber operates … When we say Uber is a different company today, we mean it literally: 90 per cent of current Uber employees joined after Dara became CEO.”

The investigation found that Uber used stealth technology to fend off government investigations, including a “kill switch” that cut access to Uber servers and blocked authorities from grabbing evidence in raids in at least six countries. During a police raid in Amsterdam, the consortium reported that former Uber CEO Travis Kalanick personally issued an order: “Please hit the kill switch ASAP … Access must be shut down in AMS (Amsterdam).”

France was the scene of Uber’s first European launch, and it met fierce resistance from the taxi industry that spilled over into violent protests in 2015. Pro-business Macron was among influential world figures, including former EU commissioner Neelie Kroes, to offer his help to the new company, the consortium said.