The Uber Files, comprising over 124,000 records, including 83,000 emails spanning 2013 to 2017, and several other conversations, have revealed how the American service provider lobbied with top government officials and tried to avoid getting caught by the police. The documents were leaked to the British newspaper The Guardian and also shared with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, and several other media organisations.
Among the huge pile of documents, is also Uber’s reaction to a 27 years old woman passenger’s rape in Delhi by one of its drivers in December 2014. The woman working for a finance company in Gurgaon was headed back to her Inderlok home in Delhi in an Uber when she was raped by the Uber driver around 9:30 PM. The latest data leak shows how Uber tried to pin the blame for the rape on local authorities and tried to absolve them of all responsibilities.
As per an Indian Express report, Uber took two approaches after the Delhi rape case, firstly it blamed the “flawed’’ Indian system of Background Checks of drivers for the rape, and secondly it tried to do damage control to avoid a reputational fallout in other global markets.
Jordan Condo, Uber’s Head of Public Policy in Asia, tried to blame the whole incident on a “pandemic of violence against women in India”, as he wrote to the company’s top hierarchy, “It is important that we show compassion and express our willingness to develop a longer term solution to stop this pandemic of violence against women in India.”
Indian Express report further reveals that the internal communication within Uber at the time was focused on pushing the blame on the local Indian authorities.
Mark MacGann, Uber’s Head of Public Policy for Europe and the Middle East at the time, 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… the view in the US is that we can expect inquiries across our markets on the issue of background checks, in the light of what has happened in India.’’
A week later, MacGann sent another mail saying that the official state system is at fault in India for giving that driver an Uber license, and not Uber itself.
Additionally, trying to pass the buck, Niall Wass, then Uber’s Senior Vice President for Europe, Middle East, and Africa wrote, “We had done what was required in terms of the Indian regulations. However, it’s clear the checks required for a driver to obtain a commercial license from the authorities now appear to be insufficient as it appears the accused also had some previous rape allegations, which the Delhi police check did not identify (in what’s called a ‘character certificate.”
Following the rape, Uber was banned for 7 months in the Indian capital Delhi before an intervention by Delhi High Court got the Uber cabs back on the road.
Other emails from the time show that the Delhi rape case was being followed by the senior-most people in Uber as Uber co-founder Travis Kalanick looked to postpone his visit to India in light of the Delhi rape.
