Press Releases

New Tolerance Campaign Demands Eventbrite Drop SPLC as Gatekeeper After Targeting Mainstream Conservative Groups
The Progressive “Hate Map” Now Groups Turning Point USA, Focus on the Family, and PragerU with Neo-Nazis, Ku Klux Klan
Washington, D.C. — Today, the New Tolerance Campaign (NTC), a nonprofit watchdog, announced a new campaign calling on Eventbrite, a leading event management platform, to immediately stop relying on the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) as an arbiter of who can and cannot use its services. This demand follows the SPLC’s latest update to its controversial “hate map,” which now lists Focus on the Family, Turning Point USA (TPUSA), and PragerU alongside violent extremists and hate groups like the Ku Klux Klan.
NTC launched a national petition urging Eventbrite to disavow the SPLC and affirm that peaceful conservative and Christian groups will not be censored based on politically motivated blacklists.
“The SPLC has completely abandoned any pretense of objectivity,” said Chad Banghart, president of the New Tolerance Campaign. “They’ve labeled respected Christian and conservative organizations as ‘hate groups’ simply because they disagree with the progressive agenda. Eventbrite should be ashamed to take cues from such a discredited source—and the American public should be outraged that tech platforms continue to use this kind of ideological gatekeeping to silence dissent.”
Eventbrite announced in 2017 that it uses the SPLC’s hate map as a key resource in determining who to deplatform. The company has refused to directly answer whether it will still follow the SPLC’s guidance now that mainstream conservative groups are in its crosshairs. NTC contacted Eventbrite via X (formerly Twitter), but only received non-answers and scripted replies.
“The SPLC is not a neutral arbiter—it’s a partisan smear machine,” added Banghart. “And Eventbrite’s continued reliance on them suggests they’re more interested in ideological censorship than in treating all users fairly.”
The petition urges Eventbrite to:
- Publicly disavow the SPLC as a source;
- Clarify that groups like Focus on the Family, TPUSA, and PragerU are welcome on the platform;
- Affirm its commitment to viewpoint neutrality.
About New Tolerance Campaign
The New Tolerance Campaign is a nonprofit watchdog organization that mobilizes Americans to hold corporations, media outlets, celebrities, universities, and other influential institutions accountable when they display double standards in their actions and rhetoric.