So many people decided to #DeleteUber the company had to automate the process
If you thought your weekend hangover was hard to deal with, be thankful you're not Uber. After the events of last weekend, the ride-hailing app experienced such a huge influx of deleted accounts, its makers had to institute an entirely new mechanism to process the requests.
After President Donald Trump's executive order on immigration, aka the "Muslim ban," went into effect on Saturday, massive groups of protesters assembled at airports where travelers caught up in the ban were being detained.
New York's JFK International Airport was one of the epicenters of the protest movement — and in solidarity with the detainees, the New York Taxi Workers Alliance called for an hour-long work stoppage of pickups from the airport from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m.
SEE ALSO: Seth Meyers takes his 'Closer Look' at Trump's 'sloppy and discriminatory' Muslim ban
In response to the traffic situation at JFK, Uber NYC sent out a tweet advising users the app's surge pricing feature had been turned off at the airport. Although Uber reps have pointed out the advisory came after the taxi stoppage at 7:36 p.m. ET, many of the protest's supporters claimed the announcement was "strike breaking," a move to profit off the tense situation.
The internet's response was fast and harsh. #DeleteUber swept the social media landscape as angry, now-former Uber users shared their reasons for deleting the app. Meanwhile, Uber's main competitor, Lyft, was quick to condemn the ban and donate $1 million to the ACLU. It seems that angry former Uber riders migrated straight to Lyft, as Lyft's number of App Store downloads overtook Uber's for the first time ever on Sunday.
Uber CEO Travis Kalanick went into full-on damage control (which may have included targeted ads at those interested in the ACLU), but the damage had been done. People had already abandoned the app en masse — and to make matters worse, some of those exiting users reported difficulty deleting their accounts, with some even claiming that their requests for deletion weren't honored.
According to the Mike Isaac of the New York Times, that's partly because until this week, Uber's process for deleting accounts was completely manual. There was never an automatic process in place, and the system was backed up due to the volume of requests.
Here's a rundown of what I've heard. pic.twitter.com/RTHBGStxia
— ಠ_ಠ (@MikeIsaac) January 31, 2017
Isaac reports that Uber implemented an automated system on Monday night, which requires the completion of a two-step process for deletion in order to prevent fraud.
In a phone call to Mashable, an Uber rep confirmed Isaac's claims. The rep did not disclose the number of user accounts deleted since Saturday, but did provide a follow-up statement via email:
If you're still concerned that your account won't be deleted, you can visit Uber's support page for more personalized guidance.
This story was updated to better reflect the timeline of Uber NYC's tweet from Saturday Jan. 28 and the ensuing response.
