In early July, a bevy of far-right “free speech activists” are planning to bring their cause to downtown D.C.

The Demand Free Speech Freedom Rally is slated for July 6 in D.C.’s Freedom Plaza, shortly after Fourth of July celebration that will prominently feature President Donald Trump.

The demonstration will include speakers like Milo Yiannopoulos, who has faced a precarious financial situation since he was banned from Twitter for calling on his followers to harass other users in 2016, and Laura Loomer, who handcuffed herself to Twitter’s headquarters in protest after she was banned from the platform for anti-Muslim tweets.

The rally’s speakers argue that they’re being unfairly targeted for their conservative viewpoints. Other social media users say these platforms are overly permissive of the fringe right and are loathe to ban them even when they violate the platform’s terms of service. (Indeed, arguments on behalf of free speech have been used to launder white supremacist ideology into the mainstream.)

Organizers of the demonstration posted an event listing for a VIP after-party at “one of Washington D.C.’s hottest rooftop spots,” with tickets selling for $200 each. But there’s something amiss: the listed location, the Penthouse Pool Club on the rooftop of U Street NW’s VIDA Fitness, never booked the event, and has no plans to host it.

According to an EventBrite page, attendees can gather after the rally with “some of Big Tech’s most censored voices” at the Penthouse Pool Club for “live music and libations.” Nonrefundable tickets are on sale for $200 plus tax.

But a representative for the group that books events at the Penthouse Pool Club says that the event is not happening there. They confirmed that someone from the group had reached out about hosting the event, which was described in vague terms, but say the vendor never agreed to host it. After learning about the EventBrite page, the third-party vendor asked organizers to remove all references to and photos of Penthouse Pool Club. As of Tuesday afternoon, the page remains online. (Update: As of Tuesday evening, the page remains up but no longer references Penthouse Pool Club.) 

Adrienna DiCioccio, the organizer of the event, tells DCist over email she booked the event through a third party. She says she thought everything was settled, hence the EventBrite page, until she learned Tuesday that “they will not be hosting the event due to the conflicting views of the owner and booking guest … It feels we are being discriminated for wanting to come together, and celebrate the Fourth of July week in our countries capital on behalf of our American free speech and some of the events speakers political views.” She says she’s working on taking down the EventBrite page, and is looking for another venue.

Some of the rally speakers have already learned that the Penthouse Pool Club won’t host the event. A member of “western chauvinist” group Proud Boys, which has been tied to a number of violent incidents over the past year, is reportedly using the messaging system Telegram to organize a harassment campaign against Penthouse. In screenshotted messages, the Proud Boys account entreats its 2,488 followers to “flood the motherfucking reviews and flood the phone lines,” as well as comment on the pool club’s Instagram. (Some Instagram comments have already appeared on Penthouse’s account, like “Too bad this place only supports one point of view and not others that sounds like some fascist shit” and “Anti-free speech in Washington DC. Scumbags.”)

https://twitter.com/oughtstunned/status/1128387948167290881

This wouldn’t be the first time an area establishment faced targeted harassment for refusing to host a far-right event. After Clarendon Ballroom declined to issue a contract for the “Deploraball” during Inauguration weekend, workers at the venue were left “surprised, shaken, and scared” by hundreds of threatening messages.

In September 2017, Yiannopoulos wrongly believed that a D.C. coffee shop was censoring his website. He wrote a scathing Facebook post that led to “dozens of threatening, racist, and homophobic phone calls and hundreds of negative Google, Yelp, and Facebook reviews and comments,” the coffee shop owner told DCist at the time.

When asked about the apparent harassment campaign being organized against Penthouse Pool Club, DiCioccio wrote to DCist, “I believe in free speech and I do not have recognition to anyone calling on proud boys to flood the phone lines. If that is happening I am unaware at the moment as I am trying to figure out a venue.”