#BoycottUber Trends With 2,747 Tweets As Uber Headquarter’s Front Doors Blocked By Anti-Trump Protesters
According to Twitter, the term #BoycottUber is trending, with more than 2,747 tweets using the #BoycottUber hashtag quickly flowing into the social sharing network. The melee originally seemed to stem from an email that Uber’s CTO sent about President Donald Trump — an email that went viral, as reported by Business Insider. Thuan Pham called Mr. Trump a “deplorable person” in the leaked email, comparing President Trump’s presidential election win to the rise of dictators in the past. However, Uber CEO Travis Kalanick has been named as one of nearly 20 executive advisers for President Trump. So it’s not clear if people want to boycott Uber due to the CTO’s email blasting President Trump — as pro-Trump people would likely do — or if anti-Trump people want to boycott Uber due to the Uber CEO’s new relationship with Mr. Trump. Either way, #boycottUber is trending.
Uber employees may suffer the wrath of Uber being viewed as a pro-Trump place if the #boycottUber movement grows legs. On Friday, in San Francisco, people protesting Uber’s relationship with President Trump barricaded the doors to Uber’s headquarters in response to Uber’s ties with Mr. Trump. An Uber protest was already underway in Paris on Thursday, as seen in the top photo at Porte Maillot. Those protesters were protesting the working conditions — not necessarily boycotting Uber due to Mr. Trump. Instead, those Parisians were angry with the way Uber was cutting into their livelihoods.
I have friends who are early investors in Uber that I know wouldn't support this stance, @travisk. #boycottuber https://t.co/HuutbFCSq3
— Marika Shaub (@marikatogo) January 27, 2017
Uber’s CEO had a meeting with Uber employees on Tuesday, with Kalanick defending the ties to Mr. Trump, and saying that advising President Trump could help create more jobs and make getting around urban areas easier for travelers. Some Uber employees, however, are upset about Uber being tied to Mr. Trump. Uber sent an email to Uber employees telling them to work from home, since the #boycottUber movement caused protesters to block Uber’s front door. Uber’s email did not mention the Trump melee. It simply called it an anti-Uber protest related to the election.
#Uber supports #Trump… #boycottUber
https://t.co/Kf4HCsiwVF— CDKing (@thedaleking) January 26, 2017
Meanwhile, although Pham’s email was sent during a period after the November election to folks inside of Uber, the leaked email continues to make the rounds in a public manner. Pham wrote that he would not utter Mr. Trump’s name, and that he could barely sleep after President Trump won the election. Thuan urged people to get back up after the shocking defeat of Hillary Clinton and to fight on. He called Mr. Trump an “ignoramus” who could trigger “a nuclear holocaust that wipes out civilization as we know it.”
“Occasionally, the world takes a step backward with such things as world wars, Mao Tse-dong, Khmer Rouge, Darfur, W. Bush and his wars, etc., and now this. But I am optimistic that the world will correct itself, even if [sic] takes another catastrophe for American [sic] to usher in the next Obama as our president. In the mean time, for the next four years, I will not even utter the name of this deplorable person because I do not accept him as my leader. I will instead do everything I can to help defeat him and his destructive agenda over the next few years. Time to put on our Champion’s Mindset and pick ourselves off the floor. There is much work that we can do to help make this world a better place, through what we do here at work and in our society.”
Meanwhile, some folks have noted that the #boycottUber tag on Twitter seems to have more Trump supporters hijacking the #boycottUber tag to complain about liberals, as opposed to people using the #boycottUber tag to say they’ll actually boycott Uber. As the popular song says, “Uber Everywhere.”
[Featured Image by Francois Mori/AP Images]
