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Uber in front of the mirror

2022-07-14T10:45:25.762Z


The rhetoric of digital innovation cannot in any way serve to hide the worst business practices Thanks to the leak of a former manager, and with the efforts of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, of which EL PAÍS is a collaborating media outlet, world public opinion has had access to the so-called Uber Files, more than 124,000 documents that collect the communications, strategies and contacts of this American multinational, specialized in offering passenger transport s


Thanks to the leak of a former manager, and with the efforts of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, of which EL PAÍS is a collaborating media outlet, world public opinion has had access to the so-called

Uber Files

, more than 124,000 documents that collect the communications, strategies and contacts of this American multinational, specialized in offering passenger transport services through a mobile application.

Even without knowing the full scope of the documents, the files that have come to light show a compendium of aggressive maneuvers to establish themselves in different places, illicit pressure tactics on politicians and public officials, purchase of wills and opinions, instrumentalization of violence that occurred against their drivers in the protests of those who were harmed, fomenting quarrels between cities and, finally, a strategy aimed at delegitimizing the position of those who had the most to lose with their appearance, the taxi sector.

Uber, which broke into the last decade as one of the

start-ups

with the greatest influence on the narrative about the success of the digital economy born in Silicon Valley, it becomes before the mirror of public opinion after this leak as a company capable of anything in order to gain a foothold in the market, enough to end up making inevitable a regulation that would allow it to continue operating and growing.

With a perfectly delimited strategy, Uber established itself in a country or a city without the slightest respect for local regulations, while pressuring public authorities to achieve legislation that was appropriate to its interests.

With a growing client base acquired thanks to these aggressive policies, the pressure of public opinion and, apparently, part of the published opinion, would do the rest.

The practices of Uber, whose internal communications openly show that on many occasions bordered on illegality, are a good example of how, behind a story anchored in the opportunities offered by digitization and innovation, the most predatory model of business expansion nested, the one that observes little or no respect for local legislation on transportation or labor relations, puts pressure on governments and institutions and seeks to destroy the reasons of those who, in the face of this expansion, defend their legitimate interests.

It is of little use that the firm's management has encapsulated these practices in the past, as if that policy of fait accompli had nothing to do with the size and presence that the company currently enjoys.

It will not be very difficult to determine how much this behavior has contributed to the expansion of the company on a global scale.

Uber, in addition, is going to have to face the risk of a multitude of litigations that derive directly from these leaks.

Digital disruption hid in this case the old —and worst— customs of the wildest capitalism.


Source: elparis

All news articles on 2022-07-14

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