Uber Files : « Nous avons vendu un mensonge à tout le monde », l’interview du lanceur d'alerte

Je m'appelle Marc Magan, je suis un former senior executive de l'Uber, et je suis ici comme un whistleblower. Je suis le premier qui a révélé ce qui a devenu l'Uberphile. Le data révèle comment l'Uber a fait la loi et a fait la police, comment il a utilisé Emmanuel Macron en France, a courté les oligarchs dans la Russie de l'Oligarche, et a fait un secret meeting avec les États-Unis. C'est la première fois que Marc a parlé publiquement de ce qu'il a vu et pourquoi il a leaké les files. So what exactly was it that you were hired to do at Uber?

So I was hired by Uber to lead a team of people to develop and implement our strategy to lobby governments across Europe, across Africa, across the Middle East, so that we could enter the market and grow, despite in most cases the rules not allowing Uber to operate. Do you think you and other senior executives at Uber were aware at the time that it was openly flouting the law in cities and countries in which there were licensed taxi regulations? Well, in most of the countries under my jurisdiction, Uber was not allowed, was not authorised, was not legal. So is it fair then to say in simple terms the strategy was to knowingly break the law and then change the law?

The mantra that people repeated from one office to another was the mantra from the top. So don't ask for permission, just launch, hustle, enlist drivers, go out, do the marketing, and quickly people will wake up and see what a great thing Uber is. When you're meeting with presidents, prime ministers, chancellors, city mayors, how difficult was it for you to get those meetings for Uber? It was, I think, unprecedented in my career to have such easy access to senior members of government, heads of government, heads of state. It was intoxicating. The impression that Uber was getting a free ride from governments sparked a furious backlash in cities across the world, including in Paris in 2015.

Uber's former chief executive, Travis Kalanick, responded to strikes by taxi drivers by ordering a counter-protest. When company executives warned it could result in attacks on Uber drivers, Kalanick replied, I think it's worth it. Violence guarantees success. When Travis said, violence guarantees success, what did you think he meant by that? I think he meant that the only way to get governments to change the rules and legalize Uber and allow Uber to grow as Uber wished would be to keep the fight, to keep the controversy burning.

And if that meant Uber drivers going on strike, Uber drivers doing a demo in the streets, Uber drivers blocking Barcelona, blocking Berlin, blocking Paris, then that was the way to go.

Isn't that dangerous? Of course it's dangerous.

It's also, in a way, very selfish, because he was not the guy on the street who has been threatened, who has been attacked, who has been beaten up, and in some cases, shot. Could you not have done more at the time you were working at Uber to complain about some of these practices internally? This was not a culture where you could actually stand up and question the company's decisions or the company's strategy or the company's practices. So ultimately, I realized that I was having no impact, that I was wasting my time at the company.

And that feeling, at that point in my career, combined with the fact that I was worried not just for my own safety, but the safety of my family and my friends, you know, I resigned.

How would you respond to the suggestion that you're leaking this material out of vengeance against the company?

I think people need to look at the facts that I'm helping to expose. Certainly, I have had my grievances with Uber in the past. What I'm doing isn't easy, but I believe it's the right thing. Do you feel partly responsible and culpable for the lives that you see drivers now living? Yes, I do. And I am partly responsible. And that's my motivation for doing what I'm doing in being a whistleblower. Obviously, it's not an easy thing to do. But because I was there, I was there at that time. I was the one talking to governments. I was the one pushing this with the media.

I was the one telling people that they should change the rules because drivers were going to benefit and people were going to get so much economic opportunity. that when that turned out not to be the case, we had actually sold people a lie. How can you have a clear conscience if you don't stand up and own your contribution to how people are being treated today?

So is this for you about making amends?

It's about making amends. It's about doing the right thing. Look, I own what I did. But if it turns out that what I was trying to persuade governments, ministers, prime ministers, presidents, and drivers turned out to be horribly, horribly wrong and untrue, then it's incumbent upon me to go back and say, I think we made a mistake. And I think to the extent that people want me to help, I want to play a role in trying to correct that mistake.