A trove of 124k+ internal Uber documents from 2013 to 2017 reveals management discussions and lobbying efforts during the company's aggressive global expansion

- More than 124,000 confidential documents leaked to the Guardian — Files expose attempts to lobby Joe Biden, Olaf Scholz and George Osborne

The Guardian 2022-07-11

Context & Ripple Effects

The disclosure lands in a record already marked by Uber's internal data-collection practices and its handling of a major breach, which drew bipartisan Senate demands for an explanation after the company initially concealed it. The next day, former regional lobbying chief Mark MacGann identified himself as the source, tying the records to a senior participant in the expansion-era operation.

First-order effects

Uber's past outreach to Joe Biden, Olaf Scholz and George Osborne is newly documented, placing the company's expansion-era lobbying strategy under direct public scrutiny.
MacGann's decision to come forward gives the document release an identified insider source rather than leaving it as an anonymous leak.

Second-order effects

The files add lobbying conduct to the governance questions already raised by Uber's breach concealment, making the earlier disclosure of the 2016 breach and $100,000 payment to hackers more consequential as part of a broader management record.
Political figures named in the records face pressure to account for their dealings with Uber, while the company must address the consistency between its expansion practices and its public posture.

Third-order effects

If insider disclosures continue to connect growth tactics with lobbying and opaque internal practices, platform companies' political access will become a more central test of governance rather than a separate public-affairs function.
The pattern points toward greater value—and risk—in internal records: disclosures can reframe isolated controversies as evidence about how a company pursued market expansion.

The trend: Uber's leak-driven reckoning reflects a broader shift in which internal records are used to assess whether high-growth platform expansion relied on governance practices that were not visible externally.

Discussion

@paullewis Paul Lewis on x
We've been leaked a trove of more than 124,000 confidential files from the tech giant Uber. If you have the app on your phone, you might want to discover the methods that enabled its global expansion.... https://www.theguardian.com/ ...
@dmac1 Doug MacMillan on x
in the #UberFiles trove of 124k documents, one text message stands out. as Uber drivers were at risk of attacks by taxi drivers, former CEO Travis Kalanick assured colleagues that Uber may benefit from such violence. story from @byaaroncdavis https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ... h…
@benedictevans Benedict Evans on x
Uber's public, avowed strategy was to launch where the service was ~illegal and bully politicians into approving it, rather than lobbying first, on the theory that lobbying wold fail unless you'd already shown people the service. https://www.theguardian.com/ ...
@icijorg @icijorg on x
NEW: #UberFiles reveals that the company quietly sought alliances with billionaires and political figures close to Russian President Vladimir Putin, courting their favor through appeals from former U.S. and U.K. officials and lucrative investment deals. https://www.icij.org/...
@paullewis Paul Lewis on x
The leak contains personal text messages between Emmanuel Macron and Uber execs, revealing how he secretly helped the Silicon Valley's lobbying operation in France. https://www.theguardian.com/ ...
@faizsays Faiz Siddiqui on x
Uber's anxiety over government raids manifested in a Dawn Raid Manual that ran more than 2,600 words with 66 bullet points, which instructed: “Move the Regulators into a meeting room that does not contain any files” and “Never leave the Regulators alone.” https://www.washingtonpo…
@icijorg @icijorg on x
In an explosive new leak, the #UberFiles reveal untold forces that drove the tech company to global dominance — reshaping livelihoods, labor markets and daily transit for people around the world. From ICIJ, @guardian & 180+ journalists in 29 countries. 🧵 https://www.icij.org/...
@ericnewcomer Eric Newcomer on x
To me the story about Kalanick era Uber these days is that a legal reckoning never really came. Justice Department hasn't seemed to focus on anything besides the hack (which I first reported). Uber wasn't held accountable for much because government didn't do much
@benedictevans Benedict Evans on x
(And no, replyguys, I have no dog in this fight. My old employer a16z invested in Lyft, which was on the other side of that strategy and indeed benefited from the anti-Uber backlash)
@w7voa Steve Herman on x
Leaked confidential files reveal how @Uber flouted laws, duped police, exploited violence against drivers and secretly lobbied governments during its aggressive global expansion, reports the @guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/ ...
@parismarx Paris Marx on x
“Few people turned down Plouffe when he called in favours. It was just one example of how Uber leveraged Plouffe's reputation and his access to the Obama network to promote its agenda across Europe and the Middle East.” https://www.theguardian.com/ ...
@jasonwardcictar Jason Ward on x
“Uber executives also sought to deflect inquiries about the company's aggressive tax avoidance strategies by volunteering to help host countries collect income taxes owed by drivers, documents show.” @CICTAR_Tax https://twitter.com/...
@alemannoeu Alberto Alemanno on x
Proud to have contributed to #UberFiles as they revealed not only the systemic proximity between corporate & political power but also the embarrassing inadequacy of our legal and political culture to address the former. More on @BBCPanorama tomorrow https://www.bbc.com/...
@alfonslopeztena @alfonslopeztena on x
Uber broked laws, duped police to stop them seeing data, exploited violence against drivers and secretly lobbied governments during its aggressive global expansion: •Attempts to lobby Biden, Scholz, Osborne •Macron secretly aided Uber lobbying in France https://www.theguardian.co…
@parismarx Paris Marx on x
“The emails in the leak also suggest Plouffe must have known about some of Uber's more dubious tactics. The files show he was included in correspondence that showed the company seeking to impede investigations or enforcement against its operations.” https://www.theguardian.com/ .…
@sarahj_berry Sarah on x
I don't agree with taxi drivers about most things, but they are absolutely right when they talk about how damaging Uber is for our cities. Glad to see it getting the coverage it deserves. https://twitter.com/...
@angelapriestley Angela Priestley on x
“We're just fucking illegal.” A lesson in what not to put in an email, especially if you're the global head of communications. #uberfiles https://www.theguardian.com/ ...
@pbrody @pbrody on x
What's kind of sad is that they were right to do so. Asking permission would never have worked. Disruption is disruptive. https://twitter.com/...
@veenadubal Veena Dubal on x
This confirms years of reporting that Uber operated like the mafia to create regulatory environments that were conducive to its functioning. And it's still meaningfully profitable!!! https://twitter.com/...
@techwontsaveus @techwontsaveus on x
“The leak also contains texts between Kalanick & Emmanuel Macron ... Macron, the French president, appears to have gone to extraordinary lengths to help Uber, even telling the company he had brokered a secret ‘deal’ with its opponents in the French cabinet” https://www.theguardia…
@matinastevis Matina Stevis-Gridneff on x
This is a big one. Makes Macron look bad, Scholz look good. With so many of the key leaked documents being texts & WhatsApp messages, this trove illustrates why the European Commission's insistence to rule them out as documents is such a blow for transparency & accountability. ht…
@silvermanjacob Jacob Silverman on x
Kalanick dismissed concerns from other executives that sending Uber drivers to a protest in France put them at risk of violence from angry opponents in the taxi industry. “I think it's worth it,” he shot back. “Violence guarantee[s] success.” https://www.theguardian.com/ ...
@icijorg @icijorg on x
Uber's access extended to the highest echelons of political power. #UberFiles detail confidential meetings with presidents, prime ministers, oligarchs and more, winning the startup prominent allies like Emmanuel Macron, then France's economy minister. https://www.icij.org/... htt…
@emilybell Emily Bell on x
an intimate tour of the corporate lobbying/ political influence interface via a large Uber document leak. Props to @guardian team for the work https://twitter.com/...
@techwontsaveus @techwontsaveus on x
“We're just fucking illegal.” A leak of >124,000 Uber documents from 2013-2017 provides an unprecedented look into the ways the company “flouted laws, duped police, exploited violence against drivers and secretly lobbied governments” in pursuit of growth. https://www.theguardian.…
@faizsays Faiz Siddiqui on x
The Uber Files provide the most extensive, behind-the-scenes account of how Uber executives ordered the deployment of previously reported tech tools such as the kill switch and Greyball to gain advantages over authorities. https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ...
@moonalice Roger McNamee on x
Uber has acted since Day One as if it did not have to obey laws. When law breaking is your first principle, there is no governor on behavior. https://twitter.com/...
@benedictevans Benedict Evans on x
And Travis's brand was to be assholes-as-a-strategy. He wrote ‘always be toe-stepping’ into the mission statement.
@naomiohreally Naomi O'Leary on x
Uber executives activated a so-called kill switch to cut access to company servers and prevent authorities from seizing evidence during raids on company offices in at least six countries and Hong Kong, according to the leaked documents and public records. https://www.irishtimes.c…
@ericnewcomer Eric Newcomer on x
Great story. Would like to note that I wrote about Uber's “kill switch” back in January 2018 with @OliviaZaleski for @business https://www.bloomberg.com/... https://twitter.com/...
@parismarx Paris Marx on x
Leaked Uber documents show how former Obama administration officials David Plouffe and Jim Messina used their connections to help Uber expand across the world, even contacting US ambassadors to help the company in countries like France and the Netherlands. https://www.theguardian…
@_waleedshahid Waleed Shahid on x
“Uber sought access to leaders, officials and diplomats through David Plouffe and Jim Messina, leak shows” https://www.theguardian.com/ ...
@washingtonpost @washingtonpost on x
Uber's then-chief executive, Travis Kalanick, had ordered the computer systems in Amsterdam cut off from Uber's internal network, making data inaccessible to authorities as they raided its European headquarters, documents show. https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ... https://twitter.…
@lewis_crofts Lewis Crofts on x
Leak of ⁦@Uber⁩ files will be very tricky for ⁦@EU_Commission⁩ and ⁦@NeelieKroesEU⁩ https://www.bbc.com/...
@nicoemoe Nicole Moore on x
Uber-rooted in exploitation, w no regard to laws, common good, exploiting drivers & communities. This leak of files analyzed & reported by a world collaborative of journalists is a triumph & deeply important as we move forward through the morass these companies have created. /1 h…
@naomiohreally Naomi O'Leary on x
The European Commission is set for a fresh uproar over lobbying and revolving doors as internal Uber documents reveal the role of former Dutch Commissioner Neelie Kroes in lobbying for Uber before she joined the company. Uber employees were instructed to keep it a secret: https:/…
@robpegoraro Rob Pegoraro on x
So much Axe Capital energy for Uber to have once deemed it necessary to compile a “Dawn Raid Manual.” https://twitter.com/...

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