Eventbrite Hanging Up, Blocking Callers Who Ask About Pro-Hamas Listings

Last week, OutKick questioned the ticketing company Eventbrite about its decision to bar the listing of Riley Gaines' upcoming speech at the University of California, Davis while several pro-Hamas rallies appeared on the site.

Neither Eventbrite nor its CEO Julia Hartz responded to our multiple requests for comment. 

Instead, the chairman of the company, Kevin Hartz, told us to "go fuck" ourselves on X.  He then denied the Hamas listings existed. We showed him proof, and the company deleted the pages without explanation some 12 hours later. 

We haven’t heard from Kevin or Eventbrite since.

But on Tuesday, an OutKick reader emailed us about his own finding:

Bobby,
I read your article on Fox News the other day and decided to call eventBrite directly.
I just called eventBrite spoke with a person named Brianna.  Once I mentioned, allowing Hamas supporters on the platform, she hung up the phone and block my number from calling back.  
Wasn’t 100% sure this was the case until I called again on another number and had the exact same experience.
to be directly connected with the Eventbrite sales team. Just thought you should know this seems to be a despicable company.  Thanking you for bringing it to our attention.

OutKick emailed Eventbrite to ask if it were true that its employees hung up on and blocked a caller who inquired about the pro-Hamas listings on its site.

As expected, Eventbrite did not respond.

So, we called the company using the same number that the reader provided. The lady who answered was quite kind. She didn’t give her name. I introduced myself and started to say "I noticed Eventbrite had listed several pro-Hamas ... " but she immediately hung up the phone.

I tried to call back but the call dropped after the automated voice service transferred me to an agent. Same with my second call back. And my third.

Like the OutKick reader, Eventbrite apparently blocked my number.

The company does not want to talk about the listings. That much is obvious.

To be clear, we don't have an issue with ticket companies allowing users to promote events in support of Hamas. 

If Americans want to support terrorist groups peacefully, they should be able to do so. 

Society should not silence them. Society should let them expose themselves, the topic of my most recent column.

However, the practice becomes questionable when a site allows events that support terrorism but not events that support keeping female locker rooms female.

Eventbrite’s handling of our story is also quite peculiar.

The public relations team could have said it was unaware that the pro-Hamas web pages were posted on its site.

The publicly traded company could have also tried to save face and rescinded its decision to ban Riley Gaines for believing the female gender is not a costume.

Eventbrite did none of that. And it's now blocking those who ask why.

There is no one way for a business to handle backlash. But there are certainly wrong ways. Eventbrite proved that.