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Comment by rhizome | Hacker News Reader

You don't say things like this to an audience containing media members and not expect it to get out. Not only that, but by the same token this is in no way "attempted" blackmail. Are we supposed to assume Uber does not already buy 1MM PR spends?

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Yeah, if this is the shit they do and talk about in public, WTF do they do and talk about in private?

EDIT: Oh my God, they also have the location data of the comings and goings of lots of politicians and industry regulators, don't they? Late night trips from locations some of those people might not want made public? If they'll so casually threaten a mother's kids, threaten journalists with $1M smear campaigns, what else have they already done?

They have the location data of everyone using their service. They also have "god view":

http://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2014/10/03/god-view-...

Now, which of their executives is going to end up as a senator?

>"Sims got the text “from someone he hardly knew,” he recalls in a Medium post, asking him if he was in an Uber car at 33rd Street and 5th Avenue."

Wow I forgot about this fiasco. It literally reads like a scene from The Circle. Disturbing.

That fiasco is reason alone to never ride in an Uber.

> You don't say things like this to an audience containing media members and not expect it to get out.

You do if you're a psychopathic megalomaniac who got shoved money up the ass by shriveling old millionaires for having a business model that is based on siphoning money off less-than-minimum wage workers.

> Not only that, but by the same token this is in no way "attempted" blackmail.

This is a direct attempt to shut her up -- this an attempt to silence their critics via blackmail -- and they hoped it wouldn't get mainstream press coverage. They hoped she would find out just via whispers from those who were there.

It's not blackmail by either the legal or common-usage definition of blackmail. Even if Uber followed through with such a sleazy plan, it would not be blackmail. For blackmail, a demand must be made, accompanied by a menace. Floating an idea that you plan on digging up dirt? That might have been an incipient but ill-advised plan, it might be idle dreaming, or it might be it might be machiavellian FUD.

Not all blackmail is done by cartoon villains. This was clearly a threat, made by someone who has made more than a casual thought about it: “Stop reporting about us or we attack you personally”

> For blackmail, a demand must be made, accompanied by a menace.

It may not meet the legal definition -- but there is a clear demand and menace:

The demand is that journalists do not write negative stories on Uber.

The menace is that Uber will retaliate against any journalists by digging up dirty on them personally and thus hurting either their reputation, careers, or relationships.

Except the "demand" is not a demand directed at anyone, but just the world in general -- since it's after the fact. They would dig up dirt on those who have already written negative articles. No demands are made of them. And no demands are made of any nameable individuals. If you ask "who are they blackmailing", the answer is "a hypothetical."

I wonder... what if that's the point? What if mentioning it to an audience containing media members means that it does get out, and therefore they don't have to spend the million bucks?

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