After a food delivery whistleblower alleged on Reddit that their company had a "rigged" system, a journalist discovered that the person's information was entirely AI-generated.
Last week, a r/confession thread was posted by user "Trowaway_whistleblow," who claimed to be a developer for an unspecified food delivery app. The user alleged that one hundred percent the app's priority fee and driver benefit fee went to the company instead of the drivers and claimed to have known the information for eight months. The user also alleged that the platform had a "Desperation Score," which tracks drivers who are seemingly cash-strapped depending on the orders they accept.
"If a driver usually logs on at 10 PM and accepts every garbage $3 order instantly without hesitation, the algo tags them as 'High Desperation.' Once they are tagged, the system then deliberately stops showing them high-paying orders," the thread reads. "The logic is: "Why pay this guy $15 for a run when we know he’s desperate enough to do it for $6?"
After reading about the cruel and fraudulent practices, Platformer reporter Casey Newton contacted the Reddit user on Signal, and the person went as far as sharing a nearly-valid employee badge for Uber Eats. But upon further research, and questionable responses from the user, Newton discovered that the information was AI-generated and that he was possibly talking to a chatbot. The badge was also a photo generated by Google Gemini.
Newton was also sent an 18-page confidential document titled "Marketplace Dynamics Group, Behavioral Economics Division," with some information that almost seemed to corroborate the Reddit thread. But after noticing some "outrageous" parts of the document, Newton asked the user for their LinkedIn account, to which they abruptly left the conversation and deleted their Signal account.
DoorDash co-founder and CEO Tony Xu initially believed the Reddit thread was verifiable and condemned the practices of the fake food delivery platform on X.
"Holy fucking shit is right! This is not DoorDash, and I would fire anyone who promoted or tolerated the kind of culture described in this Reddit post. There’s so much wrong with this post," Xu wrote.
