Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin told reporters that he has “fired” Eventbrite, the latest example of right-wing criticism of the event ticketing platform and its policies of removing certain events that it says violate its terms and conditions.
“Let’s just be clear that when a company decides it’s gonna make statements on on political and social issues, they have to live with the consequences,” said Youngkin, a Republican, during an appearance on The Clay Travis & Buck Sexton Show. “And the blowback here has been warranted.”
Gov. Youngkin says that the governor’s office will no longer use the Eventbrite platform, nor will his political action committee. He decided to take this action following reports surrounding the platform’s removal of an event by Riley Gaines that was centered around the participation of transgender individuals in college sports. This was juxtaposed against Eventbrite’s allowing what conservatives have characterized as “pro-Hamas” events to remain on the platform during the conflict between Israel and the organization in control of the Gaza Strip.\
“There’s no place to sit on a fence here. You’re either condemning it or you’re condoning it,” Youngkin said. “And the fact that, first of all, Eventbrite continues to carry events around Hamas is unbelievable. But then, on top of that, to proactively terminate an agreement with Riley is beyond belief.”
Eventbrite has been criticized multiple times for the removal of several events from its platform, drawing accusations of censoring unpopular voices through its cancellations. Similarly, it 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 last fall. It was in the crosshairs of conservative commentators in another incident again over the removal of events for screenings of a documentary by Matt Walsh, “What Is A Woman?”, stating that it violated its terms and policies regarding hate speech.
More recently, a coalition of 19 Republican Attorney Generals from states including South Carolina, Florida, Ohio, Texas, Missouri, and Virginia signed on to an open letter to Eventbrite asking for its explanation on why its cancellation of an event related to gender transition by minors could be supported by policies, and “what [it] will do going forward to ensure [its] event screening policies are politically unbiased and respectful of freedom of speech.”
Eventbrite has not yet made any public response to Youngkin’s actions.
