Video Allegedly Shows Uber Passenger Threatening Driver With False Rape Accusations (UPDATE)

A recently surfaced video alleges to show an NYC Uber driver being threatened with false rape accusations during a heated argument with a rider.

UPDATED 4/6/17: A video has surfaced and allegedly shows an Uber passenger threatening to "falsely accuse" the driver of rape. The 8-minute video, which was uploaded to LiveLeak Tuesday and alleges to have been recorded during a ride in NYC, appears to start in the middle of a verbal disagreement between the two unidentified individuals. The date of the encounter is not known.

The passenger, a woman, is first heard repeatedly telling the male driver to "call the cops." Roughly a minute into the video, the driver urges the passenger to exit the vehicle. "Get out of my car," he says. "I'm not moving. We're gonna sit here. You're still getting charged." The passenger then starts to raise her voice, at which point the driver says she is "disrespecting" him and asks what's wrong with her.

As the argument continues, the passenger accuses the driver of previously hitting her in the face. The driver also accuses the passenger of threatening and hitting him. "I'm gonna start screaming out the window that you're raping me, that you raped me," the passenger is heard saying. Later, she tells the driver to "go back to your country" and that Trump is going to "send you and your family back.

When the passenger finally exits the vehicle, the driver talking into the camera, calls the passenger a "stupid Bronx bitch" before apologizing for his language. "People disrespect us, talk shit to us like it's nothing, man," the driver says into the camera. Following the video's LiveLeak posting, the encounter has started popping up in headlines and was shared to Reddit in a post that has since been locked due to people "using it as an excuse to spew racism."

Uber policy bans physical contact between riders and drivers, with any actions deemed as a threat to either party's safety prompting an investigation. "Uber uses technology to keep drivers and riders safe, for instance by GPS-tracking every ride and allowing riders to share their journeys in real time with families or friends," the company states in its community guidelines. "This is all backed up by a robust system of pre-screenings of drivers. We also have a dedicated incident response team on call 24/7 to investigate safety incidents." On Wednesday, an Uber representative confirmed to Complex that they were aware of the incident and were currently looking into the matter.

Thursday morning, an Uber spokesperson released the following statement to Complex:

The behavior in this video is abusive and completely unacceptable. As our Community Guidelines make clear, it will not be tolerated by anyone who uses Uber. The rider's account has been banned and Uber is looking into this incident.

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