Uber was founded back in 2009 and has skyrocketed out of San Francisco to become one of the hottest new companies around. Uber runs off of a smartphone app that allows people in need of transportation to put in a request and local approved drivers will come pick them up. The service still costs money but gives users the chance to see where their ride is and how long it will take for it to arrive and get them there. The app has blown up and continues to rapidly grow and expand, now offering its service in 45 different countries.
The Senior Vice President of Uber, Emil Michael, has openly brought up the idea of hiring what he calls, “opposition researchers,” that would focus on digging up dirt about the journalists that are against his company. Under the belief that nobody would discover it was him or his company doing the digging, the journalists would find out about the personal lives of these opposing media members.
This all comes after Uber has been dealing with multiple negative articles about the company and how they deal with female passengers. Sarah Lacy, the journalist in question, has made statements about how taxi drivers are more likely to attack or harm women than Uber drivers would be. Although this is, in a way, praising the Uber drivers, Emil Michael does not want this to cause any actual attacks that would cause Uber unnecessary public controversy.
The company has come out and said they have no plans to start investigating journalists and that the comments made by Emil Michael were in the moment and out of frustration during a private dinner. Michael did apologize to Lacy through Twitter and informed her that they would never start investigating her or any other journalists; however, the company is now getting tons of negative responses over the issue, which is exactly what Michael wanted to avoid when making his comments.
Photo by Bryan Bedder/Getty Images for NYCWFF
