Uber CEO reverses decision on Trump council after #DeleteUber protests

Uber CEO Travis Kalanick came under fire for his decision to join President Donald Trump’s economic council — an announcement soon altered after public response.

Many Uber users took to social media to express their disapproval of Kalanick’s affiliation with the Trump administration, using hashtags like #DeleteUber.

Last week, Kalanick announced he would no longer be joining the economic advisory group.

“Earlier today I spoke briefly with the President about the immigration executive order and its issues for our community,” Kalanick said in a letter to staff. “I also let him know that I would not be able to participate on his economic council.”

Minna Banawan, a first-year psychology and women’s studies major at UNC, took part in the wave of Uber app deletions.

“I, for my part, thought he was being tactless in trying to work with Trump,” she said. “He would have fully gone through with it had he not been criticized for it.”

The company was criticized by some in the aftermath of Trump’s executive order, which suspended travel and immigration from seven majority-Muslim countries.

During a strike by New York City taxi drivers on Jan. 28, Uber New York removed surge pricing on Uber rides to and from John F. Kennedy Airport.

Kalanick sent a message to his employees expressing solidarity with those affected by the travel ban and echoing inclusive rhetoric.

“Immigration and openness to refugees is an important part of our country’s success and quite honestly to Uber’s,” Kalanick said in the message.

Uber also set up a legal defense fund and granted financial compensation to employees who were affected by the ban.

Consumers are very powerful and can exhibit their preferences through boycotts, said Claudia Kubowicz Malhotra, a marketing professor at UNC’s Kenan-Flagler Business School.

She said this phenomenon is not an unusual one — referencing Nordstrom’s decision to pull Ivanka Trump’s fashion line from its shelves due to declining performance.

“In a world where CEOs are the voice of the company to the public, I do think that their private lives are becoming intermixed with the image of their companies,” she said.

Kalanick said through various social media platforms that his decision was not intended to be a political endorsement of Trump.

“...But unfortunately it has been misinterpreted to be exactly that,” he said.

Kubowicz Malhotra said Lyft’s recent pledge to donate more than a million dollars to the American Civil Liberties Union was probably not intended to divert business from Uber.

It exemplifies the alignment of corporate behavior with public sentiment, Kubowicz Malhotra said.

“Consumers care about what executives have to say, and that factors into their choice to consume their companies’ products,” she said.

state@dailytarheel.com