It was well known that those big tech companies in Silicon Valley, with their lack of openness, their allergy to criticism and their megalomaniac leaders, resemble old-fashioned political dictatorships. Another typical feature is that they also have to deal with high-ranking people who, after years of servitude, ‘defective to the enemy’ and hang out dirty laundry. We owe almost all knowledge about the excesses of Saddam and Ceausescu to their former top officials. We owe almost all of our knowledge about the excesses of Facebook and Uber to men and women who have held high positions in these companies.
In 1978, the head of the Romanian state security service, Ion Mircea Pacepa, defected to the West. His US published memoir, translated as The Devil’s Realm of Ceausescu, are disconcerting. The repression apparatus, of which he was a part, operated even nastier than was already known.
In 2016, Mark MacGann left Uber as chief lobbyist. The ‘Uber Files’, or the 124 thousand internal documents MacGann sent last month The Guardian played are disconcerting. Uber dictator Travis Kalanick was even worse than was already known. The Devil’s Realm of Kalanick would make a great title for a book. It is problematic that MacGann argued for so long with all his lobbying talent the merits of this devilish realm.
I read a big interview with MacGann in The Guardian and afterwards was plagued with the same question as thirty years ago after slamming Pacepa’s memoir: How could you serve such a Great Villain? On his first day at work, MacGann found out that Uber was “a crooked company.” His lobby had yet to begin. When he left, he received almost 600 thousand euros. Legislation is needed to end the excesses of big tech, MacGann says. Secure. Absolute. But there are also people needed who refuse to sell their souls to the devil.