The Uber Files: How Uber tried to blame Indian authorities after an Uber driver raped a passenger in Delhi

The Uber Files, comprising over 124,000 records, including 83,000 emails spanning 2013 to 2017, and several other conversations, have revealed how the American service provider lobbied with top government officials and tried to avoid getting caught by the police. As per an Indian Express report, Uber took two approaches after the Delhi rape case, firstly it blamed the “flawed’’ Indian system of Background Checks of drivers for the rape, and secondly it tried to do damage control to avoid a reputational fallout in other global markets. Jordan Condo, Uber’s Head of Public Policy in Asia, tried to blame the whole incident on a “pandemic of violence against women in India”, as he wrote to the company’s top hierarchy, “It is important that we show compassion and express our willingness to develop a longer term solution to stop this pandemic of violence against women in India.” Indian Express report further reveals that the internal communication within Uber at the time was focused on pushing the blame on the local Indian authorities. Mark MacGann, Uber’s Head of Public Policy for Europe and the Middle East at the time, wrote on December 8, “We’re in crisis talks right now and the media is blazing…The Indian driver was indeed licensed, and the weakness/flaw appears to be in the local licensing scheme… the view in the US is that we can expect inquiries across our markets on the issue of background checks, in the light of what has happened in India.’’ A week later, MacGann sent another mail saying that the official state system is at fault in India for giving that driver an Uber license, and not Uber itself. However, it’s clear the checks required for a driver to obtain a commercial license from the authorities now appear to be insufficient as it appears the accused also had some previous rape allegations, which the Delhi police check did not identify (in what’s called a ‘character certificate.” Following the rape, Uber was banned for 7 months in the Indian capital Delhi before an intervention by Delhi High Court got the Uber cabs back on the road.