| Dear Katy, Eventbrite has a hate group problem. Last week, members of the Proud Boys, the right-wing paramilitary hate group that led the white supremacist violence in Charlottesville, brutally beat up three people in New York. These misogynists and racists were leaving a Metropolitan Republican Club event headlined by the group's founder, Gavin McInnes, to which Eventbrite sold tickets.1 Our friends at Color Of Change asked Eventbrite to pull this hateful event from its platform weeks ago, but the company refused to act. Instead, it chose to promote and profit from an event that glorified and incited far-right violence. We need to hold Eventbrite accountable now. Tell Eventbrite: Permanently ban hate groups from your platform. Click here to sign the petition. Donald Trump has elevated right-wing extremism – white supremacy, xenophobia, misogyny, anti-Semitism, and anti-Muslim and anti-LGBTQ hate – from the fringes to the mainstream. But while activists are doing everything they can to defend the communities threatened by Trump and push back against his agenda, companies like Eventbrite are enabling and profiting off the worst of the worst. Eventbrite helped Trump supporters throw the white nationalist-filled Deploraball and likely made upwards of $100,000.2 In 2016, the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) reported that Richard Spencer's National Policy Institute (NPI), a white nationalist think tank, was cleared "under [Eventbrite's] Terms of Service by a member of the Eventbrite Trust and Safety team."3 One of the NPI events hosted by Eventbrite featured the editors of anti-immigrant, xenophobic, white nationalist publications. Another featured a neo-Nazi hero. In 2016, Eventbrite helped the anti-LGBTQ, anti-abortion World Congress of Families sell tickets to its annual gathering that, according to the SPLC, "traditionally functions as a key site of right-wing strategy development to curtail or roll back LGBTQ equality gains and restrict or deny women access to abortion and related healthcare."4 In 2015, Eventbrite helped notorious anti-Muslim extremist Frank Gaffney promote and fill seats at his National Security Action Summit.5 Eventbrite needs to stop giving hate groups a megaphone and funding stream now. Last year after Charlottesville, Eventbrite's leadership promised to stop enabling white supremacists. The company made this promise because of the clear demands from members of Color Of Change, CREDO and other partners to take action. This latest event is a clear violation of that promise, and we cannot let it slide. We need to make sure that Eventbrite keeps its words and bans all hate groups from its platform once and for all. Tell Eventbrite: Permanently ban hate groups from your platform. Click the link below to sign the petition. https://act.credoaction.com/sign/Eventbrite_Hate_Groups_2018?t=7&akid=30430%2E12967895%2EAGn6Eq Thank you for speaking out, Nicole Regalado, Campaign Manager
CREDO Action from Working Assets Add your name: References: - Jane Coaston, "The Proud Boys, the bizarre far-right street fighters behind violence in New York, explained," Vox, Oct. 15, 2018.
- "Real News Correspondents Gala," accessed Oct. 18, 2018.
- "The Official Deploraball Party," accessed Oct. 18, 2018.
- Hatewatch staff, "Anti-LGBT hate group World Congress of Families gears up for its tenth International Congress," SPLC, May 13, 2016.
- Keegan Hankes, "Eventbrite allows white nationalist group to sell tickets," Jan. 28, 2016.
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