This past weekend, the internet was set ablaze by a post on r/Confessions claiming to be from a software engineer-turned-whistleblower working at a food delivery app. "I'm posting this from a library wi-fi on a burner laptop because I am technically under a massive NDA," wrote the purported Deep Throat. "You guys always suspect the algorithms are rigged against you, but the reality is so much more depressing than the conspiracy theories."
The poster then went on to make a series of claims about the exploitation of both workers and customers at the unnamed company. Delivery drivers, they said, were called "human assets" by project managers working to "squeeze another 0.4% of margin" out of them. They were ranked according to a "desperation score," and had their wages stolen by using "predictive modeling to dynamically lower the base pay." Customers were being scammed by the app's priority-delivery function, which was actually just a "psychological value-add."
The post went viral, racking up 87,000 upvotes on Reddit. Commenters began speculating about which company the clandestine whistleblower was talking about, with many eventually pointing the finger at DoorDash. It was reposted on dozens of subreddits including the page for delivery drivers where hundreds of commenters thanked the whistleblower for confirming what they already felt. A screengrab of the post garnered more than 40 million views on X, where journalists, activists, and even famous actors got in on the...
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