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Cape Town - Uber executive Emil Michael has apologised for comments suggesting that the company hire a team to dig up dirt on journalists.
According to a report on BuzzFeed, Michael made the comments at a Waverly Inn dinner hosted by Ian Osborne, a former adviser to British Prime Minister David Cameron.
Officials said that the dinner was off the record, but Michael nevertheless said that Uber should spend around $1m to hire a team act against journalists who oppose the company.
In particular, the target of the campaign seems to be Sarah Lacy, the editor of the Silicon Valley website PandoDaily. Lacy has been a vocal critic of the company's practices.
Uber is no stranger to controversy. The company has been accused of playing dirty tricks on its opposition and fighting lawsuits against its operations in a number of jurisdictions.
'Morally bankrupt'
The lift service has, in particular, been accused of hiring teams to pose as customers for competitors such as Lyft. These teams order and cancel rides to waste drivers' time or actively recruit drivers in a strategy to undermine competition.
Lacy herself does not hold back from her criticism of the company. As recently as 14 November, she wrote a column that attacked Uber's practices.
"I have known many of Uber’s key investors and founders personally for six to ten years. Over that time I’ve seen an ever-worsening frat culture where sexist jokes and a blind eye here-or-there have developed into a company where the worst kind of smearing and objectification of women is A-OK," she writes in the piece.
Additionally, she calls Uber "morally bankrupt" and accuses company representatives of deliberately undermining women who report poor behaviour from drivers.
"We've seen it in the company's PR team discrediting female passengers who accuse drivers of attacking them by whispering that they were 'drunk' or 'dressed provocatively'."
Uber spokesperson Nairi Hourdajian said that the company does not target journalists, specifically adding that Lacy's personal life is off limits.
On Twitter, people such as internet and social media expert Clay Shirky expressed their disgust for the comments.
I retract my praise for Uber in Shanghai "#Uber Exec Suggests Digging Up Dirt On Journalists http://t.co/Qz4TuIKvO4" Looking for alternative
— Clay Shirky (@cshirky) November 18, 2014Just to clarify, these are dumb and offensive remarks for an Uber exec to be making either on or off the record: http://t.co/31ZMka4cnM
— Mathew Ingram (@mathewi) November 18, 2014For what it's worth, several Uber employees have warned me that Uber execs might look into my travel logs: http://t.co/fA7btHseQV
— Ellen Cushing (@elcush) November 18, 2014
