#DeleteUber – Sillicon Valley Fights Back
Looks like the ride-hailing app giant Uber, has had been taking constant hits over the weekend. The negative hashtag #DeleteUber has surged across the Web as people shared screenshots of their act deleting the Uber app from their phones.
Why People #DeleteUber?
This hashtag has taken over almost all top social media platforms — from Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and been reported by tons of blogs since last Saturday. The hashtagvitism was spurred from protests over President Trump’s executive order banning 7 muslim-majority countries from entering the U.S – namely Iraq, Iran, Syria, Yemen, Sudan, Libya and Somalia.
The #DeleteUber movement started at a huge protest against the ban that took place at JFK International Airport on Saturday, when Uber decided to switch off surge pricing at JFK during the strike. Their decision was interpreted as an attempt to break the hour-long strike held by the New York Taxi Workers who stood in solidarity with thousands protesting inhumane and unconstitutional #MuslimBan.
Valued at $68B, Uber denied the fact by stating that their tweet was not intended to break the strike. Additionally, people are also furious over the known fact that Uber CEO, Travis Kalanick is a part of Trump’s business advisory council thus the tweet triggered the whole #DeleteUber movement.
LYFT Beats Uber
Not long after the #DeleteUber hashtagvitism went viral, Uber attempted to counter the backlash through Kalanick’s Facebook post by proving that Uber is all for “speaking up, engaging and making a difference”. In the post, he laid out how Uber is pledging $3 million legal defense fund and urging the government to “reinstate the right of U.S. residents to travel – whatever their country of origin – immediately.”
While Uber was burning their candle at both ends on damage-control over the weekend, Uber’s arch-rival Lyft was quick to steal the show by pledging to donate $1 million to the ACLU the next morning. Lyft app bumped to the 4th most downloaded free app place, pushing Uber down to 13th on App Store’s top chart.
Sillicon Valley vs TrumpBan
Amidst the recent head-on collision, Lyft was not the only tech company that stood against the ban as just recently Google announced a $4 million crisis fund to support the cause. It is also reported that Google has recalled about 100 employees working remotely in countries which may be affected by Trump’s order back to the U.S. Together with Google are Apple, Amazon, AirBnB, Facebook, Microsoft, Netflix and Tesla who joined forces to speak up against Trump’s executive order on refugees ban.
Truth be told, this sudden restrictions could seriously bring about detrimental effects especially to America’s most important and profitable sector — technology. We all know it too well that the Silicon Valley relies on fleet of foreign-born professionals from around the globe in empowering its critical STEM (science, tech, engineering and mathematics) fields. These foreign-born professionals are the lubricant that keeps Silicon Valley working, though some of them are working remotely — powered by cloud in different continents. Google created G Suite to accelerate its vision of Diversity with one thing in mind, to have “a diverse mix of voices that leads to better discussions, decisions, and outcomes for everyone” in the word of Google CEO, Sundar Pichai.
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