WASHINGTON aEUR

International Consortium of Investigative Journalists is a non-profit network of investigative journalists that scoured Uber internal documents, emails and invoices to provide what it called “an unprecedented view into how Uber defied taxi laws, upended workers’ rights, and more”.

The documents were leaked first to The Guardian in Brtiish, who shared them with The Consortium.

In a written statement. Jill Hazelbaker, an Uber spokesperson, acknowledged that there were “mistakes” in the past. She said Dara Khosrowshahi was “tasked with transform[ing] every aspect of Uber’s operations.” Uber is a completely different company today. 90% of current Uber employees joined the company after Dara became CEO.

Uber was founded in 2009 to offer cheap transportation using a ride-sharing platform. Uber Files, a consortium of companies, revealed the incredible lengths the company went to establish itself in almost 30 countries.

According to the papers, lobbyists from the company aEUR”, including ex-aides to President Barack Obama, pressured government officials to end their investigations, to rewrite labor and taxi laws, and to relax background checks for drivers.

Uber used “stealth tech” to avoid government investigations, according to the investigation. Uber used a “kill button” to block authorities from accessing its servers. This prevented them from obtaining evidence during raids in at most six countries. Uber Files reported that Travis Kalanick, ex-CEO of Uber, issued an order during a raid in Amsterdam: “Please hit kill switch ASAP… Access must be stopped in AMS (Amsterdam ).

According to the consortium, Kalanick also saw violence threatened Uber drivers in France by angry taxi drivers as a way of gaining public support. Kalanick sent colleagues a text message saying, “Violence guarantees(s) success.”

Kalanick’s spokesperson Devon Spurgeon responded to the consortium by saying that the former CEO had never suggested Uber should profit from violence at the expense driver safety.

Uber Files claim that Uber cut its tax bill by sending profits through Bermuda, other tax havens and then “sought deflect attention from its taxes liabilities by helping authorities to collect taxes from its drivers.”