Australian Government Revokes Visa Of “Pick-Up Artist” Jeff Allen

    Thousands of people called on the immigration minister to cancel the visa of Jeff Allen, colleague of Julien Blanc.

    Alex Lee
    by Alex Lee

    BuzzFeed News Reporter, Australia

    UPDATE

    The ABC reports Australian immigration minister Peter Dutton has cancelled the visa of Jeff Allen after a petition was signed by more than 62,000 people.

    Under Australia's Immigration Act, the minister can refuse to grant a visa if the person does not pass a "character test."

    More to come.

    Activists who campaigned for Jeff Allen's removal with the hashtag #ShutDownRSD are celebrating their victory.

    Shut Down RSD @ShutDownRSD

    WE DID IT! #shutdownRSD

    Reply Retweet Favorite

    On Monday, an Australian hotel group cancelled the bookings for seminars to be held by Jeff Allen, a colleague of pick-up artist Julien Blanc, whose visa was revoked after national outrage in 2014.

    youtube.com

    Allen, who goes by the name of Jeffy, had planned a tour of Australia, starting with a dating seminar in Sydney in January and travelling to Brisbane, Melbourne and Perth.

    The company he co-founded, Real Social Dynamics (RSD), holds seminars teaching men how to seduce women, but has been widely criticised for promoting misogynistic attitudes and violence against women.

    RSD teaches men that they can pick up women by harassing, manipulating, and degrading them.

    In his promotional video for the tour, Allen claims to be an expert at procuring threesomes with women.

    "In the past three months, me and my girl have pulled over a dozen threesomes," Allen says in the video.

    youtube.com

    "If you've ever wanted to learn how to have multiple threesomes from a bona fide master this is your chance."

    His method involves using his girlfriend to talk to women and then taking them to a van parked outside the nightclub, dubbed by him as a "rape van".

    The seminar also involves showing secretly-filmed footage of women interacting with Allen.

    Following pressure from activist groups, hotel chain TFE, who run Vibe Hotels, cancelled the company's booking on Monday.

    Vibe Hotels @vibehotels

    @MelTankardReist TFE Hotels has learnt RSD booked events at Vibe Hotels under another name & has cancelled any further events at all hotels

    Reply Retweet Favorite

    A spokesperson for the company says a booking for two of their hotels was made under a false name.

    "We found out they were booking under a different name and we ordered the hotel to cancel their booking and sent an announcement to hotel managers to look out for any of these bookings and cancel them," she told BuzzFeed News.

    The spokesperson says the company's policy allows them to cancel reservations if they pose a security threat or a threat to its reputation.

    A change.org petition calling on the immigration minister Peter Dutton to revoke Jeff Allen's visa approval has been signed by over 60,000 people.

    change.org

    "These men have built a business advising young men that their best option for a romantic or sexual encounter with a woman is to belittle her, physically restrain her, mentally deride her, and abuse her until she submits," the letter reads.

    Greens' spokesperson for women Larissa Waters says the seminars promote threatening and abusing women.

    Dan Peled / AAP

    "It's disgraceful that the government has reportedly already failed to stop one of these events, which promote domestic violence, from going ahead in Australia," senator Waters said.

    "The immigration minister needs to immediately revoke Jeff Allen's visa before his organisation can promote more sexism and violence at its next seminar scheduled for Thursday.

    "The only way to make sure that these abhorrent events do not continue is to revoke Jeff Allen's visa, just as the former Immigration Minister revoked Julien Blanc's visa for promoting the same abhorrent views about women."