US-based taxi hiring service has pinned blame on the 'flawed' Indian system and authorities for the rape of a woman in Delhi in a Uber cab in 2014. An investigation of a leaked data dump dubbed as "Uber Files" has revealed damning details about how the ride-hailing service used unethical means for business expansion worldwide, including in India.
The Uber Files are a trove of more than 124,000 records, including 83,000 emails and 1,000 other files involving conversations, spanning from 2013 to 2017.
They were leaked to The Guardian and subsequently shared with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, and a number of media organisations. The leaked data reveals how the cab service used technology, aggressive lobbying tactics, and bypassed laws to dramatically expand its business worldwide.
Uber Files expose company's blame game
Investigation of the leaked files revealed that the 2014 Delhi rape case did ring alarm bells in the Uber headquarters in San Francisco.
The Indian Express, an ICIJ partner reported that the company immediately took the line that it was the 'flawed’ Indian system of background checks of drivers that led to the accused, Shiv Kumar Yadav, committing a second sexual harassment offence.
Uber blamed the Indian authorities and the licensing scheme for the crime. The internal communications showed that Mark McGann, then Uber’s Head of Public Policy for Europe and the Middle East, wrote on December 8, “We’re in crisis talks right now and the media is blazing…The Indian driver was indeed licensed, and the weakness/flaw appears to be in the local licensing scheme,” a report said.
Uber's services were banned in Delhi following the rape incident in 2014. The services resumed after seven months following the legal intervention.
Kill Switch - An attempt to stall probe
The investigation also found that Uber worked to evade regulatory probes by leveraging a technological edge.
It described an instance when the company's former boss and co-founder Travis Kalanick implemented a "kill switch" to remotely cut off access of devices in an Amsterdam office to Uber's internal systems during a raid by authorities. The technique was deployed at least 12 times during raids in France, Netherlands, Belgium, India, Hungary and Romania.
A leaked email from February 2015 describes how the process was used in India.
The leak spans a five-year period when Uber was run by Kalanick, who tried to force the cab-hailing service into cities around the world, even if that meant breaching laws and taxi regulations, the report said.
Suggested Reading: Uber Received 235 Rape Reports In 2018 In The United States
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