Did Pace Students #deleteuber ?

Deleting+Uber.+Photo+by+Elise+Adams.

Deleting Uber. Photo by Elise Adams.

Elise Adams, Layout Editor

Last weekend, in response to President Donald Trump’s 90-day immigration ban, thousands of protestors gathered at New York City’s JFK Airport to protest the people detained.

The New York Taxi Workers Alliance (NYTWA) Twitter account sent out a tweet that stated “NO PICKUPS @ JFK Airport 6PM to 7PM today. Drivers stand in solidarity with thousands protesting inhumane & unconstitutional #muslimban.”

Shortly after the NYTWA announced their strike, Uber announced that surge pricing—higher fares, sometimes three times the original cost, at busy traffic times—would be turned off near JFK.

Uber’s tweet stated, “Surge pricing has been turned off at #JFK Airport. This may result in longer wait times. Please be patient.” Uber users everywhere quickly became furious and #deleteuber became trending within the hour.

Users felt that Uber was trying to profit from the taxi drivers’ strike during a time where people were uniting to protest the immigration ban.

Pace junior Caroline Ver Planck deleted her Uber account after seeing what the company chose to do in a time of national difficulty.

“I chose to delete Uber because of both their ties with President Trump and their response to his executive order last week,” Ver Planck said. “The Uber CEO, Travis Kalanick, is on Trump’s advisory committee, along with the fact that they tried to profit off of the travel ban. While other companies seized the moment to protest this discriminatory ban, Uber used it as a way to advertise and make a profit off the protests at JFK.”

Ver Planck believes that by joining the 200,000 other people that deleted their Uber accounts, they are standing up together and willing to voice their opinion.

“Obviously, me deleting my account does not fix the travel ban but it sends a message to Trump and Uber that over 200,000 people are upset with their actions,” Ver Planck said. “Similar to a protest or an online petition, it is showing that I am against this company and their beliefs.”

The communications major was a frequent Uber user, using the app about two times per week. She will not redownload it, solely because she thinks their competitors had a better response to the issue.

“I use Lyft solely now because not only do they have better prices and support their drivers, but they immediately responded against the immigration ban, supporting their drivers and riders along with donating a million dollars to the ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union),” Ver Planck said.

Josie Lovallo, also a junior, did not delete her Uber account.

“I just didn’t think that Uber was trying to split up the strike or the protest,” Lovallo said. “I think there were a lot of people at JFK without rides, so Uber turned off their surge price so people who were using transportation apps like Gett, Lyft or Uber were more likely to use Uber since it would have been cheaper.”

After #deleteuber started trending, Uber released a statement that said, “We wanted people to know they could use Uber to get to and from JFK at normal prices.”

“I’m glad they made a statement letting people know they were not trying to break up the strike, but give people who needed rides affordable rides,” Lovallo said. “I understand why people did delete the app, but I just don’t think Uber had any bad intentions dropping the surge price, but that’s just my interpretation of it.”

Kalanick quit Trump’s council of business leaders and notified his employees he spoke with Trump in response to the #deleteuber controversy.

“I let him know that I would not be able to participate on his economic council,” Kalanick said. “Joining the group was not meant to be an endorsement of the president or his agenda, but unfortunately, it has been misinterpreted to be exactly that.”