Back in my days as a business studies academic, I was just as infatuated as the next man with this new power available to businesses and customers to make transactions simply and very cheaply.

Platform technologies and the startups to which they gave rise seemed an unalloyed good. That was before the corporate woke revolution and the cancel culture that has followed.

STUCK

Just like so much of Silicon Valley, the power acquired by then Little Tech turned into something evil. And we are stuck with it.

The tech investor Mark Andreessen famously said that “software is eating the world”.

Indeed it is, but now, not in a good way. We should be careful what we wish for.

Like many Australians, I have booked in to hear Dr Peter McCullough, an eminent American cardiologist and COVID truth-teller.

Inevitably, he has been cancelled all across social media, as Big Tech does the bidding of the Big Pharma class and supine useful-idiot governments who wish not to have their mortal sins revealed.

The usual suspects in Australia tried to have the Immigration Minister do a “Novak Djokovic” on him, and this seems to have failed.

Normally, the cancellers go for venues. They threaten prospective venues, often small businesses, hosting “divisive” speakers with all kinds of retribution, and mostly the venues cave.

They correctly conclude that their business will be crushed, and so they themselves turn into cancellers. Cowardly but understandable.

This happens thousands of times, again and again. Lauren Southern has been an attackee. As has Ian Plimer, in Hobart of all places.

McCullough has booked out a number of venues across the Eastern Seaboard.

DON’T WORRY

Then there was this from tour organiser and COVID hero Craig Kelly: “A few hours ago EventBrite in the USA have sent this email out to everyone that bought tickets to see Dr McCullough in Australia.

“Eventbrite can go to hell. We are making alternate arrangements to get tickets to everyone – so don’t worry.

“We do not live in North Korea or Nazi Germany – we will not be censored!

“Eventbrite have picked on the wrong people. We will be suing these bastards.

“The enemies of Freedom will be held accountable. In the meantime, we already have a team working to contact everyone and get them their tickets.

“And we will have more tickets on sale very soon. Freedom always wins in the end. Please spread the word.”

Here is the text of the email sent to ticket purchasers: “Hello, we are reaching out to notify you that your order for this event has been refunded because the event does not comply with our Community Guidelines. Your order has been refunded in full and you can expect to see the refund credit in your account within 5-7 business days. 

“Thank you for your understanding and we apologise for any inconvenience. Sincerely, Eventbrite Trust and Safety.”

Anyone who uses the phrase “reaching out” should right away be the subject of intense suspicion. (I am still to get my email).

They don’t even have the guts to speak to their customers in plain English. No, that was removed from the corporate playbook some time ago. Along with the old adage once treasured by business – “the customer is always right”.

FREE?

Now the customer isn’t entitled to make up his or her own mind about which events to attend. A free society, I hear you ask?

So, who is Eventbrite? Just another platform company joining a long list of startups who saw the big new trend in the transaction economy. Nothing special, but they cornered a market.

Hilariously, the company claims: “Eventbrite brings people together through live experiences. Discover events that match your passions, or create your own with online ticketing tools.

Charlatans, then.

It is used by many punters who probably didn’t see this coming. Ironically, Eventbrite was used by The New Culture Forum in the UK for an event featuring the estimable Rod Liddle …  talking about how the West went woke!

Eventbrite has form with Peter McCullough, too.

The Spectator Australia is onto the current saga, to its credit: “The endless march of cancel culture has set its sights on McCullough, determined to stop the COVID vaccine narrative from falling apart by nixing individuals brave enough to speak out. Eventbrite is going to need more than a few refunds to achieve that. Recent weeks have seen the walls close in on vaccine manufacturers, especially in light of Twitter’s new free speech policy.”