Podium, which calls itself the country’s leading communication and payments platform for local businesses, has dropped its customers that sell guns. The company best known for texting and messaging marketing changed its terms of service last month to make all “firearms-related businesses, activities, or transactions” to be “prohibited.”
This comes after Podium paid to advertise, bought exhibition space at the nation’s largest firearms trade show and actively pursued business with gun dealers, according to documents from the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF). Podium said it wanted to “lean into the world of guns” before changing policies.
“Woke businesses like Podium are choosing to side with gun control and implement boardroom policies that discriminate against the Constitutional rights of law-abiding Americans and a lawful industry,” Larry Keane, the NSSF’s Senior Vice President for Government & Public Affairs & General Counsel told me. “It’s bad business.”
Jessica Keffer is the vice president of the Sportsman’s Shop, a popular gun store in East Earl, Penn. She said that she has been paying Podium $360 a month for the past year to manage their online chats and text messages with customers.
Keffer said Podium emailed her “out of the blue” to say that her account was being “deactivated.” …
“It’s infuriating,” Keffer said in a phone interview. “We are a legal business, doing things the right way. And I should be able to advertise and promote my business as such. And I can’t do that because of what we sell.”
— Emily Miller in Exclusive: Podium Cancels Its Gun Store Customers
I would take this to court. It’s discriminative against lawful commerce to say the least and they’re ceasing to give equitable consideration. Whoever is doing business with these turds should find another such service to use and then dump Podium. Hitting these jackasses in the wallet is what damages them the most.
As I have said often and have been asked not to say by politically inept history illiterates who could not, would not in a million years define Gun Control by its history of rot…
When it comes to discrimination in 2022 it is law abiding Americans exercising their Second Amendment Constitutional Right who are being treated in the same manner as the Jim Crow Gun Control democRat Party treated Black Americans with the N-Word, no service signs, whites only signs, served in back signs, colered water fountain signs, etc.
The pompous pasty mouths at podium assume they can run over decent people and get away with reguitating the same kind of bigoted based rot that has happened throughout history. To be clear with podium and the like minded…It is not The Second Amendment going down it is Gun Control zealots carrying around an agenda rooted in racism and genocide who are going down.
Podium has already accepted losing gun business revenues into their business plan. Should sue them for discrimination ala the deviate life-style couples that sued the Colorado baker and more recently a design services (as I recall) small business for not serving them as not wanting to perform services against their religious beliefs. Podium cannot hide behind reliqious beliefs position. Well, I guess they might, as Lefturds religiously discriminate against American rights.
Their shareholders could file suits for mismanagement, but they’re probably in the clear otherwise.
We are not going to lawyer our way out of this.
Oh, I dunno.
It’s well-worthwhile exploring our options on this…
They campaigned to get gun businesses on board, abruptly dumped them with no warning, and are holding their content and subscriber information hostage. At a minimum I would think deceptive advertising, and breach of contract. There is probably also some prohibition against holding your former clients proprietary information, and not letting them have it.
If I put the tinfoil hat on I can also see this as a way to compile lists of gun owners, and if I go full Alex Jones I would wonder if that was their plan from the beginning.
I am not a lawyer, but I agree with those that say the gun businesses so affected need to at least consult with one about this. I have never heard of Podium. It may be small ebough for a few lawsuits to bankrupt it.
yet a baker does not have the right to decide who to do business with? find a new company to run your customer interactions. this is a great opportunity for you to find better service.
Those who make the rules also get to pick and choose enforcement too.
I agree, best to let the marketplace sort it out. Want to force a “woke” business to work with you? That opens up the door for them to force their agenda on you. Read the fine print and understand every contract you sign.
Minimal government, free markets, and individual freedom to grow, are what build wealth and lift people out of poverty.
“I agree, best to let the marketplace sort it out.”
For a potential civil rights violation? 🙁
Correct approach is to sue them out of business while changing vendor.
I agree with you Hawkeye, but in places where bakers are already forced to comply we may as well use the woke mob’s weapons against them.
And as I outlined above I think there is normal business basis for legal action here. False advertising and breach of contract are well established legal action complaints and are in alignment with freedom and market activities.
this
It’s bad business, but it’s their business.
“It’s their business”…uh huh, tell that to the bakers, photographers, etc who have been sued into oblivion by the woke establishment for declining a customer.
Ya can’t have it both ways Jimmy me boyo.
Apples and oranges, ya old fart. Being in the business of firearms is not a protected class against discrimination.
There should be no “protected classes” in private business, period Free association should rule the day, and any private business owner should have the right to refuse service to anyone for any reason.
Mr Bill could refuse to serve whoever, and customers would simply choose to buy from Mrs Bianca, who is known to serve everyone, instead.
A private business would be free to be as inclusive or exclusive as it wants, and the market would decide the fate of competitors, not some Stalinistic collusion between big tech, gov, finance, and the useful idiot wokeling masses to purge wrongthink business owners from the market because they dare to hold different beliefs or sell “problematic” wares
This problem is of course magnified under the lens of monopolization, “just build your own streaming service” is no longer possible because the handful of entities that control your ability to be hosted on the web are in bed with the politicians claiming your site is some kind of threat to national security for hosting any opinion to the right of Karl Marx.
I miss the internet from 1998-2005
“Being in the business of firearms is not a protected class against discrimination.”
Perhaps it should be.
Biden has literally declared open warfare on the gun industry…
@Millsurp Collector: At issue is more-so a social problem and less-so a legal problem.
What are the rules for intercourse (commercial, sexual, verbal, etc.) in our society? That’s really up to the society to decide. Not much is going to succeed if it bucks the predominant sentiment of a society.
That said, sometimes a law or court decision nudges a society along. Not reliably; not consistently. Yet, sometimes.
Prior to the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s or so, that the proprietor was king of all he surveyed was the accepted consensus. But the Civil Rights Movement compelled American society to reconsider this principle.
We had to ask ourselves: ‘Is it just to tax Black citizens for a government to grant eminent domain to a railroad to bring passengers to a hotel who wouldn’t serve a Black guest?’ Eventually, Congress declared a notion of a “public accommodation”. Society adapted. Are we worse for the change?
I anticipate the day when we will confront the question: ‘Is it just for a merchant to deny access to a woman with an Order of Protection merely because she is legally armed?’ Will society adapt in response to this question? Would we be worse for such a change?
“protected”? As SHALL NOT BE INFRINGED protected?
We certainly “protect” banks, medical, gov’t offices
Legally speaking, this is correct. The law defines what a “protected class” or person is. Firearms businesses are not protected against discrimination absent discrimination based upon one of the listed categories in the law, such as sex, age, religion, race, and sexual orientation. Since this business appears to be instituting a ban industry wide, invidious discrimination cannot be proved.
The problem here is not that they refused service, it is that they actively solicited to provide service and then abruptly and without warning severed service without cause, retained the former clients proprietary information and refused the former clients access to it.
This is legally actionable independent of protected classes.
I also do not believe protected classes should exist but if they do then constitutional rights should be among the things protected.
Add them to the Boycott list.
Boycott? Fuck that noise. Hit them where it hurts, in the bank account…
ah, yes… the podium box.
Perhaps the jury box should be explored…
Manage your own shit. Send your texts and email yourself. It’s so convenient has ruined the country.
Get woke, go broke.
Yep…the gunshops I frequent in Indiana manage just fine. One even advertises on billboards on I-80! I’m in a profoundly pizzed off mood with Dims in ILLannoy & nationwide wanting to ban or neuter my rifle!!!
😱 Oh no! No more spam texts?!? 😱
Never heard of them. And why do you need to pay some company $360 per month t o manage your messages. Wouldn’t you be better off to begin with by having an employee of yours handle such things, if you can’t do it yourself?
That makes too much sense. But websites don’t operate that way. TTAG is no different. Pretty much any website you go to will pull in ten more. When you’re told that they don’t sell your information, it’s true they don’t. It’s the other ten you have to worry about. Not to mention that mom and pop gun stores simply are not going to spend their time creating their own transaction software. They will outsource it like everyone else. It’s a blessing and a curse of the modern internet. This kinda thing is also what plagues Trumps social media creation. You still have to go through companies that hate home and America just to get the app.
“And why do you need to pay some company $360 per month t o manage your messages.”
Your LGS with 3 employees can’t afford to dedicate one person to deal with such things…
Woman Shot For No Reason During Armed Carjacking > https://concealednation.org/2022/12/woman-shot-for-no-reason-during-armed-carjacking/
Note: This year, so far, 2022; ~85% of firearm unarmed crime victims were either shot or other wise seriously injured by the criminal(s) after complying with the criminal(s) demands. ~2% of firearm armed crime victims were either shot or other wise seriously injured while resisting with firearms and ~97% did not suffer any harm by resisting with firearm.
“Woman Shot For No Reason During Armed Carjacking”
No reason? Whoever shot her wasn’t trying to steal her car?
Sounds like a good reason to shoot someone to me, if you’re the one doing the ‘jacking’…
Its like the wear the judicial slapdown as a virtue signal badge of honor, “look at us we violated their constitutional rights.”
Private citizens cannot violate another citizen’s constitutional rights. Constitutional rights are restrictions on governmental action, not private action. Which is why the FBI had Tweeter and Fakebook doing its censoring of the Hunter laptop story. The only exceptions are for violating constitutional rights due to “invidious discrimination” against members of a “protected class.” Gun owners are not a protected class.
Well there’s nothing wrong with this according to the libertarian’s liberals on the left. This is a private company. Unless it’s a private Christian bakery.
That’s complete bullsh!t. The actual libertarian position would be that podium engaged in deceptive advertising and committed breach of contract and deprived their former clients of those clients proprietary information. They should be sued and made to pay and made to restore their clients proprietary information.
The actual libertarian position on bakeries is that a business should be free refuse service to anyone for any reason.
Anyone who says otherwise is NOT a libertarian.
THIS … I can totally agree with. ALL OF IT
“Woke businesses like Podium are choosing to side with gun control”
“bought exhibition space at the nation’s largest firearms trade show and actively pursued business with gun dealers”
In other words, someone is now *incentivizing* them to side with gun control. They didn’t just wake up and decide they were anti-gun. This is how ESG type policies work. Who’s their financial backer? Hmm…
“a fresh $201 million funding round and market valuation north of $3 billion…Podium’s latest funding, a Series D round, is led by YC Continuity with participation from Durable Capital Partners, Arpex Capital, Accel, Album VC, IVP, Sapphire Ventures, Summit Partners and Sorenson Capital.”
https://www.deseret.com/utah/2021/11/15/22783105/how-utah-podium-fared-latest-funding-round-communications-platform-silicon-slopes
That’s who’s pulling the strings.
I had a chance to look at YC Continuity.
https://www.ycombinator.com/continuity/
Managing director 1: Ali Rowghani (Iranian immigrant), recently retweeted: “Twitter is staring at a Pyrrhic victory of truly terrifying proportion.” So this guy apparently hates free speech.
Managing director 2: Anu Hariharan. She flies the Indian flag on twitter.
They’re using corporations (mainly through the financial and tech sectors) to control us and impose their values. It’s much easier than legislating. Democrats are for this. Libertarians and “hands off” (most) Republicans aren’t against it. What do you think happens next?
It’s time….
If you are looking for ways to reduce costs or better distribute workflows for your IT company, then you should take a closer look at this article, because it is in it that you will learn a lot of useful information and can not only learn it, but also use it.
It’s essential for businesses to align with their values, even when it means making tough decisions. Kudos to Podium for taking a stand. As a digital marketing agency, we understand the importance of integrity in business decisions.
It’s essential for businesses to align with their values, even when it means making tough decisions. Kudos to Podium for taking a stand. As a digital marketing agency, we understand the importance of integrity in business decisions.
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