So many people have been deleting their Uber accounts, the company has set up an automated process.

#DeleteUber was trending for much of the weekend after Uber lifted surge pricing around John F Kennedy airport during protests about Trump’s ban on migration from seven Islamic nations. Whether Uber was actively attempting to counter the strike is a matter of dispute – the company ended its “surge pricing” shortly after the end of the protest – but its actions, combined with a number of other aspects of perceived support for Trump including chief executive Travis Kalanick’s membership of a presidential advisory board, proved the final straw for many.

As a result, Uber has confirmed it has had to install an automated process to handle account deletions. First noted by Mike Isaac of the New York Times, previously an Uber employee had to put through each account deletion manually.

Uber has not confirmed exactly how many accounts have been deleted as a result of #DeleteUber, but in a statement to Mashable, they said:

Anyone who requested that their account be deleted will have their account deleted, and reports to the contrary are false. Over the weekend we implemented a new automated process to handle an increased volume of requests and implemented a password check, a security best practice to avoid abuse and fraud.

The Guardian has contacted Uber for comment.

Uber has attempted damage control since #DeleteUber gained traction, stepping up attempts to stem the flow of users abandoning the service in protest.

It began with a statement from CEO Travis Kalanick, outlining Uber’s response to the ban. They promised a $3m fund to “financially compensate” drivers affected by the ban, so they could “continue to support their families while they are prevented from returning to the US.”



Now, the company has started replying to account deletion requests with an explicit repudiation of Donald Trump’s policy. “We wanted to let you know that Uber shares your views on the immigration ban,” the new reply reads: “It’s unjust, wrong and against everything we stand for as a company.”

Later, Eric Beard, of creative agency Common Goal, noticed an Uber Facebook post sharing Kalanick’s statement was targeted to people interested in the ACLU:

The biggest winner from Uber’s controversy? Rival company Lyft. Twitter founder Jack Dorsey pointed out the app was, at one point, the fourth most popular free app in Apple’s app store after they pledged to donate donating $1,000,000 to the ACLU over the next four years.