Summary: Uber has deactivated some transgender drivers’ accounts over what it deemed to be fraudulent profile photos taken after their transitions, the Los Angeles Times reported Friday.

The ride-hailing app company mistakenly classed some transgender and nonbinary drivers’ ID documents as fraudulent, according to five drivers who spoke to The Times and American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) records reviewed by the publication. Some drivers told The Times they weren’t able to recover their driver accounts through Uber’s appeals process.

Zahid Arab, an Uber spokesperson, told The Times that Uber was working to reactivate the drivers’ accounts. ‘œOn occasion, requests can be misrouted and result in a regrettable customer experience which we are working to address,’ Arab, adding that it was working to ensure that its ‘œbackground check process runs as expected for transgender and nonbinary users.’

An Uber spokesperson told Insider that the company recognizes that ‘œfor transgender and non-binary drivers and delivery people, the name and photo on their ID does not always reflect their true identity,’ adding that Uber will continue to improve its processes to ‘œbetter serve all users.’’¦

Monty Robinson, a former Uber driver, told The Times she’d worked for Uber for more than a year before she transitioned. She said she submitted a form through Uber’s help page entitled “I am transgender and need account help” but Uber nonetheless deactivated her account, saying she’d uploaded a fraudulent photo.

Adrian Escobedo, a transgender man, told The Times he’d submitted to Uber a profile picture taken after he transitioned and a driver’s license with a photo taken from before. He said his
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driver account was suspended, and weeks later, he was informed he’d submitted fraudulent documents, and had been banned from the platform.

According to The Times, the ACLU of Southern California then wrote to Uber asking the company to reactivate Escobedo’s account, and according to Escobedo, it was reactivated the next day.

Is it really surprising that Uber’s technology isn’t transgender-friendly? Or at least not transition-friendly? The recognition technology is iffy at best even when you haven’t completely changed your looks.

However, it’s extremely unfortunate that Uber even has a help page called ‘œI am transgender and need account help’ but still deactivated the person reaching out for help. That is not cool. You can’t just pretend like you’re going to help people and then deactivate their account without actually trying to fix the issue.

Uber, you can do better. Let’s also hope that Lyft has this figured out.