March 14, 2025

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Mark MacGann is no stranger to the inner workings of power. As Uber’s chief lobbyist in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, he played a central role in the company’s aggressive global expansion, convincing governments and regulators that Uber’s gig-economy model was a force for good. But in 2022, MacGann was revealed as the whistleblower behind the Uber Files, a trove of over 100,000 documents and 18 gigabytes of data exposing the company’s ethically dubious practices, including misleading world leaders, bypassing local laws, and refusing to provide basic labor protections to its drivers.

The global investigation into Uber was led by The Guardian, which shared the data with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) and 42 partner media outlets.

MacGann says his decision to leak the files was motivated by his discomfort with Uber’s practices, which he believes unfairly harmed two groups: taxi drivers, who were driven out of local markets by Uber’s price-dumping tactics (offering rides far below standard local rates), and Uber’s gig workers, who were initially lured with the promise of high earnings but faced dwindling salaries as subsidies were reduced.

He spoke to this year’s Nieman Fellows and to Nieman Reports on the moral quandary that prompted him to blow the whistle, the process of working with The Guardian’s investigations unit, and the consequences of taking on one of the world’s most powerful tech...

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