Ride-sharing giant Uber has banned a customer from its app after he posted a social media video showing one of its drivers enduring a racist tirade.

Mandeep Sehgal said it was important for him to draw attention to the situation because South Asian drivers are increasingly facing racist taunts and Uber is taking too long to hold its aggressive customer accountable.

South Asian Uber drivers are also increasingly installing cameras in their cars for security purposes because of hate, Sehgal said.

“Enough is enough. We will not tolerate this any longer,” Sehgal, 40, said in an interview.

Uber confirmed the action was taken in an emailed statement this week.

“We contacted the driver and removed him from the platform,” the company said.

Uber added that it makes it easier to report discrimination on its platform and reminded users to follow its guidelines, which state that “discriminatory language… denigrates or questions sensitive topics related to national origin, race, ethnicity” and “discriminatory language.” “Making racist comments or using slurs is never allowed.”

A spokesperson for the app did not answer questions about why it took so long to ban the customer.

Sehgal said he picked up a man from a remote neighborhood in southeast Calgary on the night of Sept. 21.

Sehgal can be seen in a nearly three-minute dashcam video.

When the man starts driving, he asks Sehgal where she is from. Sehgal tells him that he is Indian.

He asks Sehgal if he is a permanent resident. Sehgal says he is and that he came to Canada seven years ago.

The man asks: Are you going to get a “white chick” pregnant?

Sehgal laughs nervously and replies: “Why are you so judgmental?”

The man replies, “Because I was born and raised in Calgarian. I am the white blood of the soil. You are in my soil. I am the blood of the soil.”

“You’re not even close to being from here.”

That was enough for Sehgal, who said he no longer felt safe around this passenger and that he tolerated “ignorant customers” who complained about immigrants during the three years he drove for Uber.

He pulled over and ordered the traveler to get out, telling him, “You can get out here, on your own land.”

Sehgal said the man felt shaken and upset.

“I pay taxes. I am a law-abiding citizen. If I have to prove that I belong here, it creates insecurity,” he said, adding that both of his children were born in Canada.

Sehgal said he then contacted Uber support to report the man’s behavior and send the dashcam video.

But he said the app’s support staff told him they couldn’t do anything. They also refused to remove the customer from the app and the low driver rating he left behind.

Angered, Sehgal later posted the video on social media. He said Uber contacted him shortly after to warn him that it couldn’t post videos without the customer’s permission, but still didn’t take action to hold the man accountable.

He said the video gained traction online after it was shared thousands of times on a different platform this month, and Uber eventually banned the driver.

Sehgal said he also made a mistake. RCMP ordered the county where they caught the man to remove the posted address because it was unrelated to the customer, leaving an innocent third party at risk of harassment.

Evan Balgord, executive director of the Canadian Anti-Hate Network, said Sehgal’s situation is part of a larger, growing problem.

Balgord said he’s observed a lot of hate targeting Canada’s South Asian diaspora lately in response to politicians discussing immigration and student visas in Canada.

He said Sehgal should have thought about his client’s actions.

“I hope he learns from this experience, changes his beliefs, and comes forward and apologizes,” Balgord said.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 1, 2024.