Eventbrite repeatedly disallows free speech
July 20, 2023
It’s not just that Eventbrite doesn’t believe in free speech; it’s that Eventbrite doesn’t allow free speech. Which, given that it’s the largest ticketing agency in the nation – so everyone uses it to organize their events – is more than something of a problem. Because if you organize an event that will say something the woke and progressive don’t like, you can’t use the ticketing agency. Even one already organized will be canceled.
This is what is happening. It happened at a Stanford event for Matt Walsh and his documentary “What is a Woman?”. It happened to the British journalist Julie Bindel for a book launch (Bindel is very left-wing, vocally lesbian, and gender critical). Another British book launch. Or the Independent Women’s Network in Texas. They were just advocating for single-sex spaces for women.
But this whole area of discussion – of debate, of meeting to talk about it – is banned from the Eventbrite platform. They point to their rules, of course. Here:
Don’t Post Hateful or Dangerous Content or Events That Discriminate Against or Threaten Any Societal Group, or Encourages Violence. This includes:
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- Hate speech, hateful ideologies, and hateful activities that incite, encourage or engage in violence, intimidation, disparagement, harassment, or threats targeting an individual or group based on their actual or perceived race, ethnicity, religion, national origin, immigration status, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability, age, or veteran status
- Terrorist symbols, activities, and organizations or organized criminal activity
We’re probably all OK with not allowing Hamas or the Mafia to book events through the platform.
But what they’re doing is insisting that any discussion of a possible clash between women’s rights and trans rights is, in itself, hateful. That is, the people making these definitions have used them to insert the company on one side of one of the grand debates of our times.
Even try to speak while being gender critical – a TERF in the current jargon – and the event is canceled. But given that this is precisely where the current debate is, are there conflicts between these two sets of rights? If there are, what do we do about that? This is one of the grand societal questions that need to be settled by public discussion and debate. Not by the team at Eventbrite using the terms & conditions to determine whose voice can be heard.
But you’ll be glad to know that an event about the street art of the Black Lives Matters movement – you know, actual violence and hatred out there in the streets – is fine. Celebrating actual violence is fine; talking about violence against women is not. Just so we all know what happens when the progressives and woke actually take control of an organization.