Yahoo Finance #Deleteuber Twitter campaign takes hold in Saudi Arabia
Uber has been hit by a online boycott in Saudi Arabia after the taxi hailing app pulled out of a conference in response to the alleged murder of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
Thousands of Arabic-speaking Twitter users have posted messages urging users to delete the Uber app in the last week. Many have urged users to switch to Careem, a local rival.
The campaign echoes the #deleteuber movement that saw hundreds of thousands of US users delete their accounts amid the company’s crisis last year.
Earlier this month, Uber’s chief executive Dara Khosrowshahi said he would not attend the Future Investment Initiative conference in Riyadh, dubbed “Davos in the Desert”, due to concerns about Mr Khashoggi. Turkish officials say Mr Khashoggi was murdered after entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.
Around 48,500 tweets containing an Arabic hashtag that translates to #Saudisboycottuber have been posted in the last week, from around 34,000 users, according to data from Sysomos, a social media analysis service. Many people have tweeted screenshots showing them deleting Uber from their phone.
Dear @Uber,
You have played with the wrong people, let me tell you that! ��#السعوديون_يقاطعون_اوبر#DeletingUberpic.twitter.com/xLQ9oHy3o2— عبد المحسن (@abdulmohsen_95) October 14, 2018
Uber isn't the only app has the same service in KSA, @CareemKSA it is your turn to take an action. #السعوديون_يقاطعون_اوبر@Uberpic.twitter.com/q41NhQG7qr
— فارس الخمعلي (@faris_ems) October 13, 2018
The tweets appear to have been amplified by automated bot accounts, although experts said many of the tweets appeared to be genuine.
Networks of bot accounts expressing support for the Saudi government have been widely used in the last week amid allegations related to Mr Khashoggi’s death. Last week, Twitter removed a network of bot accounts pushing pro-regime messages.
The Saudi government is one of Uber’s biggest financiers. It invested $3.5bn in the company in 2016 and is also the largest backer of SoftBank’s Vision Fund, which has a 15pc stake in the company.
The backlash threatens Uber’s ambitions in the Middle East at a sensitive time for the company.
Uber has been in talks with Careem about a potential merger in the region, which would resolve an expensive rivalry and ease pressure on the US company’s financials as it prepares to go public next year.
However, last week Careem raised $200m (£153m), suggesting that a deal with Uber is unlikely. Investors included the Saudi prince Alwaleed bin Talal.
Yin Yin Lu, a researcher at the Oxford Internet Institute, said the tweets appeared to be a mixture of organic and bot accounts, which suggested the campaign was at least partly genuine. “It’s a lot easier to amplify existing sentiment than completely fabricate something,” she said.
Ben Nimmo, of the Atlantic Council’s Digital Research Labs, said the number of retweeted posts associated with the hashtag - one indicator of bot activity - was relatively high, but suggested a mix of both online bots and humans deleting their Uber accounts. “It’s not screaming out bot traffic but the numbers are high enough to make me think there are bots in the mix there,” he said.
