Ticket sales giant Eventbrite won’t allow Riley Gaines to promote her upcoming speech, but it was all in on a pro-Hamas event hosted by an LGBTQ community center.
That is until public pressure caught up with the Big Tech platform.
Gaines, the former star athlete on the University of Kentucky NCAA swim team and outspoken critic of biological men turned transgender women competing in women’s athletics, was told she could not promote her November 3 speech at the University of California-Davis on the Eventbrite website.
According to conservative news site OutKick, Eventbrite declared the listing of Gaines’ speech, “Protecting Women’s Sports with Riley Gaines,” is a violation of its “hateful content” policy.
“We have determined that your event is not permitted on the Eventbrite marketplace as it violates our Community Guidelines and Terms of Service, with which all users agree to comply. Specifically, we do not allow content or events that – through on- or off-platform activity – discriminate against, harass, disparage, threaten, incite violence against, or otherwise target individuals or groups based on their actual or perceived race, ethnicity, religion, national origin, immigration status, gender identity, sexual orientation, veteran status, age, or disability,” the Eventbrite Trust and Safety team wrote.
As a result, Gaines’ event has been unpublished.
But Eventbrite was apparently more than glad to promote anti-semitic events.
The site recently featured a November 1 event titled Stop the Genocide! Free Palestine!” at The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center in New York City. The event summary describes death peddlers in Hamas — the Palestinian terrorist network that runs the show in Gaza and led the rape, kidnapping and murder of more than 1,600 human beings — as “resistance fighters.”
“Early on Saturday, October 7th, Palestinian resistance fighters broke through Israel’s siege of Gaza. In response, Israel has declared total war against the people of Gaza, completely cutting off access to food, water, and electricity, while bombing the Strip and killing entire families,” the event summary stated.
Israel has declared war on Hamas, the terrorist group. There was no effort by Eventbrite to correct the wilfully erroneous post that, among other lapses, fails to note the actual call of genocide of Jews in the Hamas charter.
Eventbrite also listed a Queen Mary School of Law rally titled “Carnage in Palestine: Oppression, Complicity, and Ethical Responsibility.”
“Given Israel’s siege and bombardment of Gaza the question of challenging western academic complicity with Israeli institutions that are directly complicit in the crimes of apartheid and genocide is more critical than ever. This talk addresses the importance Palestinians have attached to non-violent forms of solidarity in their struggle for freedom, justice and equality,” stated the page.
Following the OutKick story, Eventbrite silently deleted the LGBTQ Community Center event listing, as well as the law school post.
“The event is currently unavailable,” the empty link now advises.
Eventbrite co-founder and chairman Kevin Hartz, sent several posts on X directed at OutKick, conservative talk show host Clay Travis, Gaines, and reporter Bobby Burack disputing that Eventbrite lists the pro-Hamas events cited in the story.
Kevin, appreciate you responding to @outkick so eloquently. Can you explain why you allow pro-terrorist ticketing at your company & not a pro-women’s event with @Riley_Gaines_? And while you’re here, do you believe men should be able to win women’s sports championships? Thanks. https://t.co/2sTJoMd3d7
— Clay Travis (@ClayTravis) October 26, 2023
OutKick and hundreds of other users sent Hartz the links to prove otherwise, although he had not acknowledged that fact as of Thursday afternoon, the publication reported. Hartz’s original X jab at Gaines and the others seemed to have disappeared, too.
Eventbrite officials could not be reached for comment Thursday.
But a quick glance at the site shows Eventbrite is still promoting anti-Israel hate. A Gumbo Media community event, for instance, is driving a “letters to Palestine” campaign. Gumbo describes itself as a “storytelling platform and content engine that expands the narrative of Black life.”
“We grieve the losses in Palestine and stand in solidarity with the liberation struggle in occupied Gaza. This struggle for liberation and justice in Palestine and the struggle for Black liberation are connected. Our fight is for globally oppressed peoples,” the Eventbrite event listing notes. “We are holding space to engage with one another as we navigate how to support and speak out for Palestinians.”
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M.D. Kittle is the National Political Editor for The Star News Network.
Photo “Riley Gaines” by Gage Skidmore. CC BY-SA 2.0.
