Boycott Uber 2019: Ride-hailing company faces backlash after CEO calls Jamal Khashoggi's murder a "mistake"

Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi is under fire for calling the murder of a Washington Post columnist a "mistake," despite his attempts to curb the damage from his comments.Khosrowshahi, who also compared the slaying of Jamal Khashoggi to the death of a pedestrian hit by one of his company's autonomous vehicles, on Monday said he regretted the comments, made during an interview with Axios on HBO. He tweeted that there's no forgiving or forgetting what happened to the murdered journalist and he was wrong to call it a mistake.Still, #BoycottUber began to trend Monday on Twitter, with some critics taking to social media to bash Khosrowshahi's words while suggesting that they were meant to downplay Khashoggi's grisly murder in order to mollify one of the company's largest investors.Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund, known as the Public Investment Fund, holds about $1.9 billion worth of Uber stock, making it the company's fifth largest stakeholder. Its managing director, Yasir Al-Rumayyan, sits on Uber's board."This is what happens when you're a greedy CEO and a murderous regime is your 5th largest shareholder," said one Twitter user in urging a boycott of the ride-hailing company. Lyft anyone?#BoycottUber https://t.co/71jENrAyw5The effort brings to mind the #DeleteUber movement that gathered steam several years ago as the company struggled with image problems and lost customers to rival Lyft.Officials with the U.S. and the United Nations suspect that Saudi Arabia's Prince Mohammed bin Salman played a role in Khashoggi's slaying. Prince Mohammed has said he takes full responsibility but denied ordering the killing, calling the slaying "a mistake" in an interview in September.In his Axios interview that aired Sunday, Khosrowshahi echoed those comments, saying "I think that government said that they made a mistake." He then compared Khashoggi's slaying to an accident in which one of Uber's autonomous vehicles struck and killed a pedestrian last year."It's a serious mistake. Our investors have long known my views here & I'm sorry I wasn't as clear on Axios."Khashoggi was killed and dismembered by individuals identified as Saudi intelligence officials and a forensic doctor last year at the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul. A U.N. investigator said the Saudi journalist was the victim of "a planned, organized, well-resourced and premeditated extrajudicial killing for which the state of Saudi Arabia must bear responsibility."Khosrowshahi was brought in as Uber's CEO to turn around a company plagued with self-inflicted wounds. Grammy Award-winning musician and philanthropist Jon Bon Jovi is honoring our veterans and their service with his new song, “Unbroken.” For the next 12 months, all proceeds from the song will go to the Patriotic Service Dog Foundation. Bon Jovi wrote the anthem for the new documentary, “To Be of Service,” about veterans who live with PTSD and the service animals who help them heal. Brett Podolsky, co-founder of The Farmer's Dog, said it took him two years to realize the food his dog was eating was making her sick.