#DeleteUber Furor Continues Over Delays in Deleting Uber Accounts

Users take to social media once again, days after the original campaign, with complaints the company is not deleting accounts as requested, or is taking too long.
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Uber just can’t catch a break. After Uber drivers continued to service New York’s John F. Kennedy Airport during a New York Taxi Workers Alliance strike meant to bolster protests over President Trump’s travel ban—which, given Uber CEO Travis Kalanick’s position on Trump’s Strategic and Policy Forum, was seen as a type of strike-breaking and collusion—the company experienced a backlash complete with viral hashtag activism in the form of #deleteuber, in which users, well, deleted the Uber app. Some users went so far as to delete their Uber accounts entirely—or, at least, they tried.

Now, Uber is experiencing a second round of backlash, with users complaining the company is taking too long to honor their requests for an account deletion.

The issue stems from the success of the #delteuber campaign: the increase of account-deletion requests was large enough that it required Uber to build a new system to automate the execution. In the process, users who thought their account deletion was a done deal were emailed instructions to click through a link to complete the process; users have taken to social media with a fresh round of attacks on the company after the move.

Speaking to Business Insider, an Uber spokesperson said: “Anyone who requested that their account be deleted will have their account deleted, and reports to the contrary are false. Over the weekend we implemented a new automated process to handle an increased volume of requests and implemented a password check, a security best practice to avoid abuse and fraud.”