Legal action against Eventbrite for unlawful discrimination

[Spero]

On Oct 27 2022, Eventbrite pulled my book launch event for 'Transpositions - personal journeys into gender criticism'. This was a collection of stories from men and women about how they got involved in issues around sex and gender. Some of you may have contributed.

They told me that I was promoting 'violent and dangerous' content. I asked them to explain themselves. They haven't. So I am taking them to court for unlawful discrimination against my gender critical belief.

I wrote about it in the Critic here thecritic.co.uk/why-is-eventbrite-obstructing-my-book-launch/

I am hoping that some people may feel able to do a spot of gardening. I know its dark and miserable and not the best weather for gardening, but I think this could be quite an important piece of digging. There are some really important questions to ask about how private companies, based overseas are allowed to dictate what we think or say.

I expressed doubt at the chances of success and admitted it would be a difficult battle, but didn’t say it was hopeless. The 90% of my posts were pointing out pitfalls and contract law facts in order to assist you in preparing a workable legal strategy. Yes, it wasn’t go girl useless cheerleading- it was real assistance.

Facts that other experts on this thread have confirmed were an accurate assessment of contract law and the things you needed to consider especially since you’re doing a breach of contract legal suit (or is that no longer happening either?)

If you had taken any of it on board, you’d be in much better position than you are now. You said I was ridiculous when I asked whether you’d passed the info shared with you on to your legal counsel asserting that ‘of course I gave them everything’ - but it really doesn’t seem so as the whole “author” letter back to you from Eventbrite has you acting all OMG, how odd, and so on when I told you this was a possibility back in November that it could be argued that the paragraph you were relying on as an out from California law does not apply to you due to your role as author/editor of the book you were launching- implicitly saying you need to ensure you have an argument showing it applies to you if you intend to use it because it will be questioned by Eventbrite’s legal counsel.

And guess what? It was questioned four months later exactly as I warned you. Which you apparently never did prepare for as your “they can argue im George Clooney’s wife” response as a counter argument is utter self sabotage…you never prepared for this at all. You did nothing to avert this. And you’re doing no damage control.

Now you’re saying you had zero intention of actually trying to win your legal suit which is not what you promised us when asking us for funds. You never said your objective was to raise public awareness, you said you wanted the court to rule that what Eventbrite did was unlawful.

I dunno, is this a TRA tactic now? To milk women defending our single sex spaces for money on law suits advertised to be supporting our rights that you then sabotage to ensure you lose and thus start building case law in opposition? You lose and that gives more license to Eventbrite and any other tech company to just cancel away free of censure an events by those known to be advocating women’s rights.

I do not agree at all that you have been transparent. You say one thing on fundraising pages and at public speaking events to get the money, and then your actions and words afterwards indicate the complete opposite.

You don’t have my support or respect anymore at this point. Maybe if you actually file the law suit as you promised when you took my & others money you can gain it back. Over £19k for a solicitors letter that results in nothing but more license for silencing isn’t progress, that’s a setback.

When I donate money to a person stating that it is for the purpose of filing a law suit with the objective of actually winning it, it is not unreasonable to expect that

• they actually file a law suit, and
• they exert good faith effort throughout the process to try and win

As a patron, I have every right to express concern over questionable statements like victory (winning the case) isn’t the point, the point is tweeting, the point is going on telly, the point is chatting with my MP.

I have every right as well to express concern over warnings ignored and what appears to be shoot self in foot behaviour when it concerns the case.

I didn’t donate for someone to be a paid political activist.

I didn’t donate for someone to be a paid political activist.

We know you didn’t donate. You can stop your faux concern for those who did. As for political activism - what did you think Spero’s court case was for if not political activism? Political activism is what we are paying for with these court cases.

There is no way you donated to this fund, you utter pillock.

I know DR isn't in good faith so this isn't for them, but anyone else reading who is unsure. Since 2019 I have been a political activist. My favoured weapon is 'LawFare' - i.e. using legal action to promote and protect political objectives. I have been explicit about this every step of the way.

Victory in legal action is desirable. It is not the only or even primary objective.

I do not engage in frivolous legal action. I recognise its inherent uncertainty and massive financial cost. I am very grateful to all those who donate their money. But in donating you do not have control over me or the legal action. You will not see your money again, you may not get a result that you want. These are risks I think are worth taking. I assume adults with capacity are able to balance risks and benefits when donating.

Are you seriously claiming that you donated to Spero’s crowdfunder? 🤣😂

Hahaha nicely done

Oh very dear!

I didn’t donate for someone to be a paid political activist

Oh dear, did the nasty lady accept your imaginary money?

Oh the twists and pivots!

I didn’t donate for someone to be a paid political activist.

I did.

For those wishing to pay for political activism, I would like to recommend the following

For Women Scotland
Sex Matters
Fair Play for Women
Standing for Women
Murray Blackburn Mackenzie

feel free to add to the list.

I didn’t donate for someone to be a paid political activist.

Fixed it.

Its very weird. If the case were a slam dunk, with Spero bound to win, there would not be a need for crowd source funding. Eventbright would be in the wrong, and their lawyers would probably tell them this. They would either settle or Spero's team would be rubbing their hands in glee., perhaps offering to do the work on contingency. (IANAL so don't know if contingency is possible.)

Eventbrite is morally wrong. hat right have they to make moral judgements of the sort they are making. Why on earth should a view that sex matters and that women have a right to single sex spaces be a "hate" issue.

So the idea is to test the law to see if it supports Spero's views. If it does not then the lawmakers need to consider the extent we allow Californian firms to assert their commercial dominance to override our cultural norms. Freedom of speech needs to be protected in the UK.

That is what I donated towards.

If it was a slam dunk it would still cost money to take to court. Court isn’t cheap. Eventbrite know full well that it costs money for Spero to take this to court and that most people would give up before it got to that stage. They also know that as this is the UK any payout would be relatively small. They can settle at any point so why bother doing so now? Why not wait to see if she runs out of money first then they don’t need to change practices.

Thanks. Interesting.

Using their greater financial clout....

Bullying?