Eventbrite is being criticised for the removal of several events from its platform, drawing accusations of censoring unpopular voices through its cancellations. The ticketing system’s latest controversy comes on the heels of de-platforming events that planned discussions on gender ideology from the perspective of individuals who disagree with the trend of acceptance of transgender individuals as belonging to the gender of their choice.
In the latest instance, the platform removed Woman’s Place UK’s webinar from its platform over the fear that discussions on gender ideology in the event might lead to hateful views. It was to be the launch for Defending Women’s Spaces, written by Karen Ingala Smith, a book about sex and gender identity with an argument that the people of the female sex have a unique set of needs which are often not met by mixed-sex spaces.
However, a couple of days before the event, the platform suddenly refunded all the tickets to the ticket holders and deleted the listing. Organizers received a message from Eventbrite’s trust and safety team, stating that their event was not permitted on the Eventbrite platform as it violated policies on “hateful, dangerous, and violent content and events”.
“Our programme of events is certainly in line with the stated aim of Eventbrite to ‘bring together a diverse community’ and to celebrate ‘different cultures, countries and voices’,” read the statement on Woman’s Place UK’s website. “In bringing different groups together, it is inevitable that not everybody will agree on everything.”
“Given the level of targeted hate and derision women have been subjected to in recent years for defending our sex-based rights, it is more than ironic that we have been labelled as the hateful party and banned from holding a peaceful event, open to all,” the organization explained further.
Woman’s Place UK defines itself as a group of women from a range of backgrounds including trade unions, women’s organizations, academia and the NHS.
It defends the idea that “rigorous collection and analysis of sex-based data and high-quality research must be central to the development of any services, policies or actions which address women’s needs or which challenge sex discrimination and inequality” besides other resolutions regarding women having a right to self-organize, an end to male violence against women, representation of themselves on the issues about women, and a restricting access to safe women-only spaces to women on the basis of ‘sex, not gender’.
On the other hand, it has been described as a transphobic hate group by the Labour Campaign for Trans Rights and others, and criticized for its demand of trans women’s exclusion from all women’s spaces, including refuges, toilets, locker rooms, prisons and hospital wards.
Coming to the cancellation in question, Karen Ingala Smith, author of the book to be launched, and the director of Woman’s Place UK, told The Telegraph: “It is outrageous and grimly ironic that two of this country’s pre-eminent feminist campaigners against male violence against women should be the subject of cancellation on an entirely bogus pretext.”
The event was to include an interview with Smith by Julie Bindel, a journalist, author and campaigner for survivors of men’s violence against women and co-founder of Justice for Women.
Woman’s Place UK claims that it has organized 31 public meetings, 11 webinars and a conference attended by over 1,000 people, via Eventbrite since 2017, adding that its events have hosted over 160 different speakers/facilitators and audience members always have the opportunity to debate and discuss as part of Q&A sessions.
The Woman’s Place UK incident was followed by another event (in Nottingham), a documentary critiquing gender ideology and women’s rights issues, being delisted by the platform. And now Eventbrite is being accused of conducting a “campaign of cancellation” against women after pulling tickets for a string of gender-critical events over fears they could spread hateful views.
The platform previously drew widespread anger from right-wing several times as a consequence of cancelling Pro-Trump Event Page over violation of its policies related to “disinformation” in 2020 before it similarly cancelled payments for an event featuring filmmaker Dinesh D’Souza, citing rules on its platform against “misinformation” in 2022 summer.
Soon after, it was again in the crosshairs of conservative commentators over the removal of an event on its platform, which was the screenings of a documentary by Matt Walsh, What Is A Woman?, stating that it violated its terms and policies regarding hate speech.
