Uber used tech 'kill switch' to stymie investigators

Former CEO said "Violence guarantees success"

A massive trove of leaked files seen by The Guardian claim ride hailing firm Uber ignored laws, lobbied politicians and embraced its illegal status to boost global expansion.

The data dump consists of emails and messaging exchanges sent between 2013 and 2017, as well as memos, presentations, notebooks, briefing papers and invoices.

It appears to show that ex-Uber head Travis Kalanick tried to force global expansion by flouting local laws and regulations.

The company aggressively lobbied politicians in response to a global backlash against the firm - for a multitude of reasons, including complains about pay, legal status and attempting to break established taxi industries.

These politicians included several in the UK's Conservative Party: George Osborne, Matt Hancock, Michael Gove, Priti Patel, Sajid Javid and Ed Vaizey. Only one, Osborne, declared the meetings.

Lobbyists also met with Emmanuel Macron, who argued in their favour to the French Cabinet, and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who opposed them - as well as then-Vice President Joe Biden.

Uber planned to spend as much as $90 million on lobbying efforts in 2016, but was not always successful, facing opposition from left-wing politicians and taxi firms.

When the company launched in India, a top local executive urged managers to focus on expansion, even when "fires start to burn". He said, "Know this is a normal part of Uber's business... Embrace the chaos. It means you're doing something meaningful."

Kalanick himself supported sending Uber drivers into potentially volatile situations, like taxi protests, to "keep the controversy burning."

"I think it's worth it," he said. "Violence guarantee[s] success. And these guys must be resisted, no? Agreed that right place and time must be thought out."

When some Uber drivers were attacked in the Netherlands in 2015, the company sought to turn the news to its advantage to win concessions from the Dutch government.

A spokesperson for Kalanick has said he "never suggested that Uber should take advantage of violence at the expense of driver safety," and any suggestion that he would do so would be "completely false".

The kill switch

Uber certainly faced pushback around the world, with one senior executive admitting in an email, "We are not legal in many countries," and another saying, "We have officially become pirates."

Nairi Hourdajian, Uber's head of global communications until 2016, told colleagues in Thailand and India, "Sometimes we have problems because, well, we're just fucking illegal."

Some regulatory agencies attempted to close Uber's operations, from fining drivers and impounding their cars to raiding offices. The company developed its own methods to fight back.

One of these was known internally as the "kill switch". When an office was raided, executives would instruct IT staff to cut all access to the company's main data systems, preventing authorities from investigating.

Uber used the practice at least 12 times during raids in France, the Netherlands, Belgium, India, Hungary and Romania.

Kalanick's spokesperson told The Guardian that kill switch protocols were common business practice, and had been vetted and approved by the company's legal department.

A spokesperson for the company said the kill switch "should never have been used to thwart legitimate regulatory action," and it had been discontinued in 2017 when Dara Khosrowshahi took over from Kalanick as CEO.

In fact, Uber is putting on a show of remorse since the leak. In a statement the company admitted to 'mistakes and missteps,' but said it had changed under Khosrowshahi's leadership.

However, the company added, 'We have not and will not make excuses for past behaviour that is clearly not in line with our present values.'