Last month, after reports surfaced that Uber had allegedly broken a taxi driver strike at JFK Airport amid protests against President Trump’s immigration ban, the hashtag #DeleteUber caught fire on social media, leading hundreds of thousands of users to cancel their accounts with the ride-sharing giant. But just when the grassroots backlash against Uber seemed to be dying down, a former engineer went public with her tale of rampant sexism and bureaucratic incompetence within the company. And like flipping a switch, #DeleteUber is back blazing up the social networks.
In the last 24 hours, #DeleteUber was sent out by over 1,000 Twitter users in 1,388 posts, with a potential 30,124,190 impressions, according to Keyhole. That’s almost 5 million more impressions than the weekend of January 27th, when the hashtag first started gaining steam.
Gross. Gross gross gross. #deleteuber https://t.co/4b1AFwj9x0
— Felicia Day (@feliciaday) February 19, 2017
Travis Kalanick, the guy who once bragged to GQ about how Uber was helping him get laid. #DeleteUber https://t.co/YIUKcnckHm
— HUNTER S. FAILSON (@Bro_Pair) February 20, 2017
This Uber situation is utter chaos internally. Even worse than #deleteuber weeks ago. And at the time, that was the worst I had seen yet.
— ಠ_ಠ (@MikeIsaac) February 20, 2017
Uber’s bungled response to the JFK strike, and its slow-motion response to CEO Travis Kalanick’s participation in a Trump advisory committee (he eventually backed out) helped #DeleteUber gain traction. People were mad that Uber seemed to have a callous response to the taxi worker strike, and then they got madder when they learned Kalanick would be advising Trump on economic policy. It fed into their preconceived notions about Uber as Silicon Valley’s most hated company, the one that breaks laws, manipulates markets, ignores allegations of abuse, and actively blocks its drivers attempts to organize and fight for better earnings.
What’s different is that this time Uber has a playbook for how to deal with the backlash. Rather than dally over how much credibility to give ex-engineer Susan Fowler’s allegations of sexism and a toxic corporate culture, they came out with an immediate response. Kalanick denied any knowledge of Fowler’s situation, and put the company’s recently hired head of human resources, Liane Hornsey, in charge of an “independent” investigation. Arianna Huffington, who sits on Uber’s board, will also be involved.
Just talked w/ Travis & as a representative of Uber's Board I will work w/Liane to conduct a full independent investigation starting now 1/2
— Arianna Huffington (@ariannahuff) February 20, 2017
Will it be enough to head off a second #DeleteUber campaign? Last time, the company reportedly lost 200,000 users, exposing a huge loyalty gap in Uber’s relationship with its customers. Many drivers work for Uber because they feel like they don’t have a choice — after all, it’s where most of the ride-sharing public goes to find rides. But back-to-back scandals are driving more and more users into the arms of Uber’s main competitors, like Lyft, Gett, and Juno. Last month, Lyft saw greater downloads than Uber on iOS in the US for the first time ever.
Just became aware of @susanthesquark's blog post & what she describes is obviously not acceptable. Trust management will take swift action. https://t.co/5Ob7MXRkw7
— jason (@Jason) February 20, 2017
This is outrageous and awful. My experience with Uber HR was similarly callous & unsupportive; in Susan's case, it was reprehensible. https://t.co/eSiOuHSMjU
— Chris Messina (@chrismessina) February 19, 2017
We’ll be watching to see whether this latest flare-up of anti-Uber sentiment will have a similar effect. Uber’s veterans and investors are already taking notice. Jason Calacanis called what Fowler described as "not acceptable," while Chris Messina recalled Uber’s HR was “similarly callous & unsupportive” when he was an engineer there.
A handful of Uber employees that I spoke to said they had positive experiences with the company’s HR department, but admitted that they were beginning to experience scandal fatigue. Morale was already low in the aftermath of last month’s anti-Uber backlash. If #DeleteUber continues to burn brightly on social media, the company could have another internal crisis on its hands.