Uber CEO steps down from Trump’s business advisory council

Uber CEO Travis Kalanick has quit President Donald J Trump’s business advisory council following the recently implemented executive immigration order.

Kalanick has been appointed one of 19 business leaders on the council, which was earlier scheduled to have its first meeting today. This comes days after the technology community went up in arms against the order that bars Muslims from certain parts of the world from entering America and also suspension of refugee admission in the country.

This also comes a week after social media users virtually demonstrated using the hashtag #DeleteUber. The campaign against the taxi hailing application came when Uber tweeted that it would apply a surge pricing John F Kennedy International Airport while New York City taxi drivers were striking at the airport. The surge announcement was taken as insensitivity by the company and unwillingness to support the strike against government’s “Injustice”

Uber users translated that and Kalanick joining the advisory council, as support for President Donald Trump. However, Travis Kalanick said Joining the advisory council was not meant to be an endorsement of the president or his agenda but unfortunately it had been misinterpreted to be exactly that.

Kalanick was earlier quoted differing with Trump’s executive immigration order saying;

“Our People ops team has already reached out to the dozen or so employees who we know are affected,” Kalanick’s memo states, just after outlining the details of the new policy.

“This order has far broader implications as it also affects thousands of drivers who use Uber and come from the listed countries … We are working out a process to identify these drivers and compensate them pro bono during the next three months to help mitigate some of the financial stress and complications with supporting their families … We will have more details on this in the coming days” said Uber-CEO

 Kalanick has said his reason for leaving the council is to continue as a company, advocating for just change on immigration. He had earlier defended his reason for working with the US president as necessary to execute on Uber’s mission.

 

 

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