Uber and the Fourth Estate
I wrote this post in 2014, more than 10 years ago.
It may be very out of date, partially or totally incorrect. I may even no longer agree
with this, or might approach things differently if I wrote this post today. I rarely edit
posts after writing them, but if I have there'll be a note at the bottom about what
I changed and why. If something in this post is actively harmful or dangerous please get in
touch and I'll fix it.
Context: Uber Executive Suggests Digging Up Dirt On Journalists, The moment I learned just how far Uber will go to silence journalists and attack women.
An old adage: “never pick a fight with someone who buys ink by the barrel”. Ignoring it, Uber shows they’re not just evil - they’re stupid.
It’s more than an old adage, though: in targeting journos, Uber shows its utter contempt for even the concept of accountability.
The idea of the Fourth Estate is to provide accountability where the law fails. Uber believes themselves immune to all accountability.
Reply from a now-deleted account1:
.@jacobian Uber seems to believe themselves immune to the law in the first place. It follows that they want to find a loophole in the press.
This person deleted their account in late 2022, after Elon Musk bought Twitter. ↩︎