FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: October 15, 2018

MEDIA CONTACT: Michelle Morris, 646.200.5307

Decision to Allow Ticket Sales for Proud Boys Event A Violation of Commitment Made to Color Of Change and Civil Rights Organizations

NEW YORK — Color Of Change, the nation’s largest online racial justice organization, issued the following statement in response to Eventbrite’s failure to proactively remove the Proud Boys’ event on its platform before the violence took place:

Brandi Collins, Senior Campaign Director at Color Of Change:

“Color Of Change warned Eventbrite on multiple occasions before Friday’s Proud Boys event about the group’s well-documented history as a violent, right-wing paramilitary hate group. Despite acknowledging these concerns, Eventbrite rejected Color Of Change’s request to stop selling tickets and made the decision to put their profit over public safety.

“After Charlottesville in 2017, Eventbrite publicly committed to cutting its platform off from people who would use it to spread ‘hate, intolerance, and violence.’ Despite these public promises, Eventbrite still fails to act when faced with violent threats. Corporations like Eventbrite must be held accountable to implementing their anti-hate policies proactively, not waiting to do damage control after people get hurt.

“Color Of Change and its 1.3 million members are calling on Eventbrite to uphold their promises they made post-Charlottesville to not allow violent hate groups from use the platform to organize.”