As we’ve reported this week, Uber is catching a lot of flak over statements made by a company VP and more recently, actions made by another exec.
In short, an Uber VP named Emil Michael recently proposed that Uber could, in theory, dig up dirt on critical journalists and use that to fight back against bad press. He specifically railed against PandoDaily editor Sarah Lacy, who published a piece critical of Uber back in October. To pile on, another Uber exec is now under fire for using the company’s “God View” data to track a journalist.
Uber, as you might expect, quickly distanced themselves from this line of thinking and promptly revealed details on its data policy.
If you were waiting for Ashton Kutcher to weigh in, well, today’s your lucky say.
Kutcher, an Uber investor, recently tweeted a question.
“What is so wrong about digging up dirt on shady journalist?” he asked.
What is so wrong about digging up dirt on shady journalist? @pando @TechCrunch @Uber
— ashton kutcher (@aplusk) November 19, 2014
The backlash was swift.
This tweet is Kelso-levels of stupid “@aplusk: What is so wrong about digging up dirt on shady journalist? @pando @TechCrunch @Uber”
— Griffin Thomson (@griffinthomson) November 19, 2014
Kutcher continued to defend his position, taking the media to task.
Kutcher seems to have ended his Twitter rant with a bit of a concession.
“U r all right and I’m on the wrong side of this ultimately. I just wish journalists were held to the same standards as public figures,” he said.
Image via Ashton Kutcher, Twitter