Martha Pskowski | The Verge

Deaths and injuries don’t slow Uber Eats’ rapid expansion in Mexico

2019-07-03T09:06:38-04:00

Rush-hour traffic comes to a halt in downtown Mexico City, as two dozen gig workers for Uber Eats and its Colombian competitor Rappi bike across one of the city’s busiest intersections. It’s dark except for flashing street lights that reflect off the neon green and orange backpacks of the delivery workers. The protestors wheel their bicycles down Insurgentes Avenue, crossing Reforma, carrying signs that read: “No more road deaths!” and “Not one delivery person killed!”

Traffic cops rush into the intersection to stop the flow of cars, while drivers honk angrily, their evening commute delayed. Some of the protestors taunt them, “Get out of your car and onto a bike!”

“Get out of your car and onto a bike!”

Two days earlier, on November 27th, the workers had lost one of their own. José Manuel Matías Flores, 22, was riding his bike in southwest Mexico City, carrying an Uber Eats food delivery. Merging onto a major avenue, a truck hit him and then sped off. Matías Flores was declared dead at the scene. The protesters are demanding that Uber take responsibility and help his surviving family members.

Matías Flores was the first known death of an Uber Eats worker in Mexico, two years after the service was introduced in October 2016. In the following six months, four more Uber Eats couriers have died in crashes. On December 12th in Puebla, Luis Fernando Hernández Fong, 23, was killed, leaving behind a three-year-old daughter. On February 10th, a young woman courier was killed in a hit-and-run in Querétaro. On February 18th, Edwin Eduardo Galván Salas was hit in Mexico City. He was declared brain dead several days later. On March 10th, motorcyclist Luis Alberto Cárdenas Hernández was killed in Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco.

Most recently, Rappi courier Ximena Callejas, 20, was killed in a hit-and-run while biking in Mexico City on May 4th. Many delivery people work for both applications, switching back and forth depending on demand.

Food delivery workers have been killed beyond Mexico. In Philadelphia, Brooklyn, Sydney, Costa Rica, Argentina, and Spain, couriers have been killed while working for apps like Uber Eats, Glovo, Caviar, and Rappi. In Argentina and Chile, Uber Eats and Rappi riders have organized and are pushing for legislation to protect their labor rights. The grievances are shared with Mexican workers: unstable wages, a lack of health insurance, and the risk of injury or death.

Nonfatal crashes have also been commonplace for Uber Eats couriers in Mexico: broken arms, clavicles, noses, and near-amputations. Injuries aren’t the only risk of riding through Mexican cities at all hours; Uber Eats workers have had their motorcycles and bicycles destroyed in crashes and been robbed at gunpoint when making deliveries. Earnings are meager, despite the risks: most deliveries in Mexico City net between 30 and 60 pesos ($1.58 to $3.17).

In Mexico, there are 13.1 traffic deaths per 100,000 people

Signing up is easy: workers only have to download the app, register at a local office, and have a bicycle or motorcycle. Within days, they can start receiving orders through the app. Their neon green backpacks are now ubiquitous in Mexico City, as couriers zip from restaurants to apartments and office buildings. It’s easy to order from Uber Eats, but dangerous to deliver. In Mexico, there are 13.1 traffic deaths per 100,000 people. That’s higher than the US, where 12.4 people die in crashes for every 100,000. Most developed countries have even lower rates; in Canada, there are just 5.8 traffic fatalities per 100,000.

In February 2017, Uber began offering insurance for delivery trips in Mexico to cover medical costs of injuries and death.

The Verge spoke with eight Uber Eats riders in Mexico who have been injured on the job. Five of them sought compensation through Uber’s insurance policy. None of them have received it. The families of deceased Uber Eats couriers have turned to their co-workers for financial help while waiting for the company to deliver. Some couriers incurred massive debt and spent months recovering from injuries sustained while working for Uber Eats.

Uber launched in summer 2013 in Mexico City; Uber Eats launched there in 2016. Mexico City’s notorious traffic made it a logical target for food delivery apps. Unlike in the US, most food delivery options were small, local businesses. Uber Eats was able to grow rapidly, thanks to the company’s name recognition and ample advertising budget. Uber Eats now operates in 33 Mexican cities. Uber declined to give specific statistics for Mexico, but said that worldwide there are 300,000 Uber Eats “delivery partners.” Uber Eats has also helped the company expand into Mexican markets where local authorities have blocked their ride-hailing service, like Oaxaca and Cancún.

The majority of Mexican workers work informally in jobs that are not regulated or taxed, like being a street vendor. Wages in these jobs are unpredictable and benefits are nonexistent.

Uber Eats couriers are considered “service providers” under Mexican labor law, which means they have no recourse to recoup lost earnings, receive disability payments, or receive employer-sponsored health care. Couriers are not registered for social security and Uber can kick them off the app with no warning. As service providers, it is also very difficult for couriers to make a legal case against the company.

As service providers, it’s also very difficult for couriers to make a legal case against the company

Making matters worse, Uber’s operations in Mexico are registered through the subsidiary “Uber BV,” headquartered in the Netherlands. By registering abroad, Uber reduced its tax obligations in Mexico and deterred lawsuits from Mexican service providers.

Uber’s terms and conditions for users in Mexico state that the arbitration of any disputes will take place in Amsterdam. None of the injured couriers interviewed by The Verge had the means to pay for a lawyer to make a claim against the company. They are struggling to pay back hospital bills and keep up with daily expenses.

Uber’s recent IPO filing showed impressive growth for Uber Eats. In 2018, Uber Eats revenue more than doubled to $1.5 billion. The report said that Uber Eats operates in over 500 cities, with planned expansion into the 700 cities where Uber’s driver services are already offered. CEO Dara Khosrowshahi has said the company plans to increase cross-promotion between the two apps and generate more ride-hailing users from the food delivery service.

The company needs to be regulated to prevent labor abuses, says Roberto Cruz Peña, a Mexico City labor lawyer. “People are going to continue connecting to the app to make money, even if they have absolutely no labor rights,” he says. “These companies aren’t going to change until the government puts the brakes on them.”

The Uber Eats couriers interviewed by The Verge are barely making ends meet. Others have gone into debt after being injured on the job. Riders who were hit before the insurance policy went into effect, or were unaware of the policy, were also left to cover medical costs.

A pattern emerged in riders’ stories: those who called for help from Uber’s insurance were told their injuries would not be covered, or the insurance company never arrived to the scene of the crash. In Querétaro, Alex Loyola called for help when he was hit by a car, but the insurance representative told him he would have to pay for the tow truck himself. In Mexico City, Raúl Micalco was carrying a delivery when a car hit him, but Uber would not cover his hospital bills for a broken arm. Vicente Solís, of Puebla, called the insurance company when he was hit, but they never showed up. Hector Martínez was hit in Mexico City, and the woman who hit him took him to the hospital when he didn’t get a response from Uber. Marco Antonio Cervantes was attacked while making a delivery. He fought back and was stabbed in the hand, causing permanent nerve damage.

Raúl Micalco was carrying a delivery when a car hit him, but Uber would not cover his hospital bills

Luis Guillermo Castro Reséndiz, 44, started working for Uber Eats in 2017 when he was laid off after 20 years in the Mexican Postal Service. A high school dropout with two children to support, Castro Reséndiz knew his options were limited. He registered for Uber Eats, working seven days a week. During a good week, he brings in 2,500 pesos ($133), which is just enough to make ends meet.

Castro Reséndiz is tall and heavy-built. His gruff voice hides a soft demeanor. He gets off his motorcycle but doesn’t take off the giant green Uber Eats backpack or his black helmet, as if the uniform has now become a part of him.

On January 13th, he made his last delivery of the day, taking his motorcycle to the Iztapalapa borough in southeast Mexico City. Castro Reséndiz dropped off an order of barbecue and then headed home, a half-hour ride away. He was riding north when another motorcycle hit him from behind, throwing him onto the pavement and knocking him unconscious.

After he came to, Castro Reséndiz felt a searing pain in his shoulder. The motorcyclist who hit him refused to pay for the damage to Castro Reséndiz’s motorcycle or medical expenses. He had to call a tow truck for his motorcycle, which was totaled.

At the emergency room, an X-ray revealed that he had a broken clavicle. He called Uber, but the support staff said that because he wasn’t carrying a delivery when the accident happened, the company would not cover his medical expenses. Castro Reséndiz provided screenshots of his messages in the Uber app with the company to The Verge to confirm this.

Castro Reséndiz paid for his medical expenses out of pocket and spent three weeks recuperating. “Since then I haven’t been able to pay off my debts,” he says. “What little money I had saved, I had to spend.”

“What little money I had saved, I had to spend.”

Even though his clavicle wasn’t entirely healed, Castro Reséndiz went back to work. Months later, he still tapes the injury every morning. He takes painkillers to make it through long days riding a rented motorcycle with a heavy backpack.

A few weeks after the accident, Uber called him into the Mexico City offices to share his feedback on the app.

“I told them about the accident,” he says. “All they did was give me a free backpack.”

Despite the hardships, Castro Reséndiz plans to continue working for Uber Eats.

“It’s sad,” he says. “But because I’m not well-educated, I’m stuck in this situation.”

Even before Matías Flores’ death, Mexico City Uber Eats couriers were organizing. Javier Roldan Maldonado, 30, thought that by banding together, they could push the company to increase rates. Maldonado has an expressive face with strong features; his messages on Facebook and WhatsApp are no-nonsense and all-caps.

With a friend, he formed a WhatsApp group called “Desconecte masivo,” (Mass Disconnect) last fall, and added all the Uber Eats couriers he knew. The group quickly swelled to over 200 people.

On November 17th, dozens of delivery workers joined a caravan to Uber’s offices. The couriers presented Uber with a list of 10 demands, including higher nighttime rates, explanations for riders whose accounts were deactivated, and a more comprehensive insurance policy.

The couriers presented Uber with a list of 10 demands

The next action took place on November 29th, calling for justice in Matías Flores’ death. Maldonado says in the months following the accident, Uber Eats couriers gave money to Matías Flores’ family while they waited for help from Uber. “We’re all helping each other because the company and the government. They’re not doing anything to help us,” Maldonado says.

Uber Eats declined to comment on whether Matías Flores’ family had been compensated.

“All Uber Eats trips in Mexico, regardless of the mode of transport, are insured at no additional cost to delivery partners, and provide coverage to third parties and delivery partners in the case of death or injury,” the company said in a statement. “In these difficult situations, we reach out to the families affected and ensure contact has been made by the insurance company regarding coverage, and we offer to support any law enforcement investigation.”

Sometimes support from other couriers is more effective than the insurance policy Uber offers. Last November, Mario Sánchez Rosales, 27, had just picked up a delivery at a Mexico City Hooters when a car hit him. He was knocked to the ground and pinned under his motorcycle. “I couldn’t move my legs and I told the WhatsApp group [of Uber Eats couriers] that I needed help,” he says.

It was 8:30PM. Uber Eats couriers showed up and began negotiating with the driver who had hit him.

Rosales also called the Uber support line, asking for an ambulance. The insurance representative didn’t show up until 11PM, over two hours after he had called for help. Rosales says the representative had him fill out a form and then told him to make a deal with the driver who had hit him.

Rosales is slender, with a close-cut haircut and stylish glasses. He moved to Mexico City from his hometown in Puebla as a teenager and started working to send back money for his younger siblings.

“Even when the conditions are dangerous, you’re enticed to keep working.”

“He told me he couldn’t do anything else to help me,” he says. He’s serious as he recounts the story. Even though Rosales was carrying a delivery to an Uber Eats client, the insurance didn’t cover his injuries. He went to the hospital and paid out of pocket. His Uber Eats colleagues convinced the driver to pay for the damage to his motorcycle.

Jorge Ramírez, 30, says that surge rates motivated him to hop on his motorcycle on a rainy night last April. Working through the downpour, he suddenly lost control of his motorcycle on the slick pavement. He wiped out, breaking his fibula. He spent months recuperating and went into debt to pay his hospital bills.

“Even when the conditions are dangerous, you’re enticed to keep working,” Ramírez says. “But you know the company won’t do anything to help if you get hurt.”

Uber Eats acknowledges that road safety is a problem in Mexico. But the insurance program the company offers to couriers falls short.

Other workers have been a lifeline for those hit by cars. Riders in Puebla donated money to help the family of Hernández Fong, the courier killed there in December. When Edwin Eduardo Galván Salas died in February, couriers visited his mother in Iztapalapa and gave her what money they could. Uber declined to comment on whether any of these families were compensated.

The deaths of five Mexican Uber Eats couriers in the past six months should sound the alarm to improve protections for its workers around the world. But despite the risks of racing by bike or motorcycle through hectic streets, thousands of Mexicans still see Uber Eats as a promising source of income. With little interference from the Mexican government, Uber Eats will continue to grow.

“I appreciate that Uber gave me an opportunity to work,” says Castro Reséndiz, who broke his clavicle earlier this year.

“But at the end of the day, you’re on your own,” he says. “They don’t care if you do 10, 20 deliveries a day. Because there are always new people joining.”

Update July 3rd 10:39am ET: A statement from Uber describing the company’s insurance policy wasn’t included in the final version of this story. We regret the oversight.

Mexico struggles to weed out fake news ahead of its biggest election ever

2018-06-27T10:46:30-04:00

“SCANDAL!!,” read the Facebook post of Mexican comedian and journalist Jorge Roberto Avilés on March 6th. “The government of Venezuela has confirmed on its television station (Venevision) what we all already knew: Nicolás Maduro is behind Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s campaign.”

Accompanying the post was a video that proved what opponents of López Obrador, a three-time Mexican presidential candidate, had long claimed: López Obrador was a crony of the Venezuelan Chavista regime, and his latest presidential campaign — which culminates with the upcoming July 1st presidential election — was propped up by a foreign regime. The video features the logos of Venezuela’s state-backed television station Venezolana de Televisión (VTV) and depicts a newscaster saying, “With the triumph of this Latin American leader on July 1, the Bolivarian Revolution will have a first-rate ally in the continent to confront international attacks.”

Venezuela has become an aphorism for the fears of many Mexican voters. Though López Obrador has consistently denied any formal ties to Venezuela, the video looked like proof of a connection. The clip spread fast — Avilés has 1.6 million followers on Facebook — and by March 12th, it had racked up more than 630,000 views.

The video looked like proof of a foreign connection

But something was off: the logos weren’t from VTV, and the videos’ timestamps read 7:58PM — a slot when VTV doesn’t broadcast news. For discerning observers, all the signs were there. The clip shared by Avilés wasn’t a VTV clip but instead a strange amalgamation of video, audio, and fabricated graphics from three separate sources. It was, in other words, a piece of fake news.

With Mexico’s election on the horizon, weeding out fake news in the country of 127 million has never been more pressing. Mexicans have long distrusted the press and for good reason. For decades, the national news media here consisted of two television networks and a handful of newspapers, all propped up financially by the controlling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI). Coverage of the government was favorable, and negative stories were buried.

“When the government wanted to announce something, it came out over Televisa,” says Esteban Illades, editor of the Mexican magazine Nexos and author of the recent book Fake News: Una nueva realidad. “It was very rare to find a version that contradicted the government line in these ‘official’ news outlets.”

Government publicity continues to be an important line item in media companies’ budgets. A report by the Mexican NGO Fundar, published in September 2017, found that the government spent $1.88 billion between January 2013 and June 2017 on media advertising, and many outlets still report the “official” version of events without further investigation. A Bloomberg investigation last fall revealed that politicians paid for packages of positive stories or to suppress negative reports. Fact-checking, says Illades, is just starting to permeate Mexican newsrooms. As a result, a 2018 poll suggested that more Mexicans trust the army and the Catholic Church than the media.

Social media and digital outlets have emerged as an important counterbalance to government-controlled media, but it also presents the risks of mass misinformation. Mexico is a hub in the Spanish-speaking world for bot farms. In the 2012 presidential campaign, now-imprisoned Colombian hacker Andrés Sepúlveda claims to have launched 30,000 Twitter bots in support of Peña Nieto’s campaign. Many Mexicans also get their news from messaging applications like WhatsApp, and news outlets are hard-pressed to catch up when chain messages spread inaccurate information almost instantaneously.

A 2018 poll suggested that more Mexicans trust the army and the Catholic Church than the media

July 1st will be the largest election in Mexican history. Voters will be deciding on the makeup of the Senate, state and local races, and voting for a president. In terms of managing the spread of fake news, Illades says, “2018 is a trial by fire.”

When the video of Maduro endorsing López Obrador went viral, Verificado 18, a new Mexican fact-checking initiative, was just setting up its office in the Condesa neighborhood of Mexico City. Verificado 18 is the brainchild of Tania Montalvo, the editor of the fact-checking unit at digital media outlet Animal Político. With funding from Google and Facebook, Verificado 18 has hired 12 journalists and data analysts to work full-time for the duration of the presidential campaign. They have a clear mission: “To confront two phenomenons: on the one hand, fake news, and on the other, [the candidates’] impossible promises and unsubstantiated critiques,” according to the website.

Verificado 18 partners with local papers across the country, ranging from El Diario de Yucatán in Southeastern Mexico to the national television and print behemoth Milenio. In the vein of ElectionLand in the States, the team fact-checks viral stories and the candidates’ claims in debates and speeches.

Verificado 18 has fact-checked stories ranging from Pope Francis speaking out against López Obrador (false) to candidate Ricardo Anaya speaking in favor of the border wall (false) to the first lady of Zacatecas praying for the country not to become a socialist dictatorship (true).

As the Maduro clip spread across Facebook, the Verificado 18 team reached out to video experts and Venezuelan television journalists to help analyze it.

Jorge Ramís, the audience editor at Verificado 18, says that a few obvious errors tipped them off that the video was fake. “The logo was placed wrong, and in other technical aspects, it didn’t match up to what [VTV] broadcasts,” he says. Venezuelan journalists noted that the broadcast supposedly aired at 7:58PM, a time slot when VTV does not broadcast news. It appears that the video was fabricated by pasting an audio recording over video footage made in Mexico combined with lifted VTV logos.

Verificado 18 revealed that the pro-López Obrador subtitles and images of the candidate had been pasted onto an unrelated broadcast

On March 12th, Verificado 18 published an explainer debunking the video. The explainer was then reprinted by numerous partner news outlets. Avilés removed the video, and a radio program that he appears on, La Maldita Hora, issued an apology, saying they “never intended to deliberately spread false information on our platforms.”

Keeping up with the steady flow of fake news is a constant challenge. In January, another viral video spread across Facebook, supposedly depicting a Russia Today (RT) TV broadcaster announcing that the Kremlin was also supporting López Obrador. Verificado 18 sought out a Russian translator and subsequently revealed that the pro-López Obrador subtitles and images of the candidate had been pasted onto an unrelated broadcast, which was, in fact, from the channel Rossiya 24.

Despite Verificado 18’s best efforts, digital rights activists warn that the threat of misinformation is only growing.

De ESCÁNDALO esto no tiene nada, de FALSO todo. pic.twitter.com/wJR4Ma1Mo1
— AJ+Español (@ajplusespanol) March 13, 2018

Alberto Escorcia has tracked Twitter trends in Mexico since 2010 on his website Lo Que Sigue, and he currently reports on bots for BuzzFeed México. He says that, like in the States, organized networks of paid social media users amplify fake stories.

“These networks are a tool to destabilize countries and to change elections,” he told The Verge over Skype. He’s lived outside Mexico for a year due to violent threats for his work.

Facebook and Twitter have taken more proactive steps to combat the spread of fake news since Trump’s election. But Escorcia says that their efforts fall short in developing countries. In his experience, the most robust troll and cyborg networks exist in Honduras and Mexico.

“The rules from Twitter aren’t enough,” Escorcia says. “An attack must line up exactly with what the rules prohibit for them to take down the account.”

He explains how politicians enlist social media in disinformation campaigns: a politician goes to a middleman, who then contracts a public relations agency specialized in social network manipulation. The agencies offer different portfolios of social network profiles to promote messages in favor of the politician or ones critical of his opponents. Payments are made in cash.

“These interactions are semi-clandestine, so it’s hard to find a paper trail,” he says. The same structure has been documented in investigative reports by ADN Político and Univisión.

Escorcia says the groups are effective because they have an eager, low-wage labor pool. “The conditions in our country, or a country like Bangladesh or Vietnam, lead many jobless people to get involved in this business,” Escorcia explains.

Montalvo of Verificado 18 says that Facebook has been just as integral to the spread of fake news, with pages disguised as news outlets publishing a mix of true and false stories. One such page — Diario de Oaxaca — has over 450,000 followers. Even a fake story published on Diario de Oaxaca that is “downgraded” through Facebook’s Third Party Fact-Checking (of which Verificado 18 is a part) can reach thousands of people.

Then there’s WhatsApp, which allows users to create groups with hundreds of members. Chain messages about the election are circulating over WhatsApp groups, with no mechanism to trace the origin of the information.

The Center for International Media Assistance recently wrote that while Facebook and Twitter receive more attention, “private, ‘dark social’ messengers [including Signal, Telegram, and Whatsapp] may be all the more to blame for the viral spread of disinformation, which is nearly impossible to track or counter once it is being circulated.”

“The conditions in our country, or a country like Bangladesh or Vietnam, lead many jobless people to get involved in this business.”

Verificado 18 has opened a WhatsApp account to receive reports of election-related chain messages, but it acknowledges that it’s the hardest platform to track.

Observers doubt that fake news will sway the election or upend López Obrador’s expected victory. López Obrador currently has a double-digit lead, and Mexico’s presidential election is determined by plurality. Nonetheless, fake news has amplified the polarization between López Obrador’s supporters and his detractors.

Escorcia worries that even if López Obrador wins by a significant percentage, orchestrated social media campaigns could provoke violence during the post-election period. He points to an incident in January 2017, during the “Gasolinazo,” when the government announced an increase in gas prices.

As people took to the streets in protest, bots pushed the hashtag #SaqueaUnWalmart (loot a Walmart), which became a Trending Topic in Mexico City on January 3rd. The hashtag then circulated over WhatsApp, setting off fears of widespread looting. Hundreds of businesses closed early, and people took shelter, but only a handful of stores were actually looted.

Escorcia considers this a “combined operation,” where a fabricated story online provokes reactions in the streets. He envisions a similar situation playing out if López Obrador is elected — bots and human actors inciting panic during the inauguration, for example.

“I think it’s going to get ugly on election day,” says Escorcia. “Bots aren’t just used for political propaganda; they can be used to repress and stop resistance.”