An Uber driver in Missouri has been suspended after it emerged that he had been live-streaming hundreds of his passengers on Twitch for months without them even knowing.
Jason Gargac, who drives for both Uber and Lyft, has given out 700 rides in St Louis since March and the majority of them were broadcast live on Twitch without permission from those inside his car.
The 32-year-old ride-hailing driver built a following on the live-streaming video platform by taking advantage of Missouri’s one-party consent laws, which means his broadcasts are actually legal.
Gargac was suspended by Uber on Saturday following a profile report into his behavior by the St Louis Post Dispatch. His videos were removed from Twitch, which is mostly used by people live-streaming themselves playing video games, following the report.
Jason Gargac, who drives for both Uber and Lyft, has given out 700 rides in St Louis since March and the majority of them were broadcast live on Twitch (above) without permission from those inside his car
The driver, who goes by the name JustSmurf on Twitch, had set up a camera on his dashboard that allowed viewers to see the faces of his passengers as they jumped into his purple-illuminated backseat.
In some instances, he offered views out the front of his car so people could see where he was driving, which subsequently gave away where some of his passengers lived.
During the live-streams, thousands of Gargac’s viewers would offer real-time commentary on the passengers, which were mostly women and sometimes even children.
Viewers would comment on how the women looked and rate their attractiveness, while others would mock what the passengers were talking about or the neighborhoods where they lived.
In some instances, the passengers confirmed their full names to Gargac during the broadcast without him ever informing them that they were being recorded.
The driver, who goes by the name JustSmurf on Twitch, had set up a camera on his dashboard that allowed viewers to see the faces of his passengers as they jumped into his purple-illuminated backseat
The 32-year-old ride-hailing driver built a following on the live-streaming video platform by taking advantage of Missouri’s one-party consent laws, which means his broadcasts are actually legal
Gargac himself often commented on his passengers before they got in the car and again after he had dropped them off.
He referred to them as ‘content’ for his live-streaming platform.
‘This better be content, I swear to God. This better be content, that’s all I’m saying,’ Gargac tells viewers of two female passengers he picked up.
‘I mean, the blond girl looks kind of cute, if they’re together. The blonde is cute. The one who ordered is not.’
In an interview with the St Louis Post Dispatch, Gargac said he had enlisted the help of his wife to remove any racist, homophobic or overly sexual comments.
‘Saying she was an 8 out of 10 or a 9 out of 10, that’s cringe-y to a point, but I don’t think it goes over a line,’ he said.
‘But if you go over the line of like: ‘Oh, I’d do such dirty things to her,’ something like that, I don’t want that at all.’
Gargac said he had enlisted the help of his wife to remove any racist, homophobic or overly sexual comments from his Twitch page
In some instances, he offered views out the front of his car so people could see where he was driving, which subsequently gave away where some of his passengers lived
Under Missouri law, only one party actually needs to agree for it to be legally recorded. In this instance Gargac is the agreeing party, meaning his passengers don’t actually have to be informed that he is live-streaming them.
Regardless, Uber said Gargac’s behavior was a breach of their standards and suspended him while they investigated.
‘The troubling behavior in the videos is not in line with our Community Guidelines,’ an Uber spokesperson said.
‘The driver’s access to the app has been removed while we evaluate his partnership with Uber.’
Lyft has not commented publicly yet.