This article originally appeared on WND.com
Guest post by Bob Unruh
He claimed that advertising a new service was “indoctrination”
Streaming service Hulu has surprisingly backed down, doing a 180-degree turn when faced with its decision to censor a church ad in Texas.
“We are grateful to Hulu for their quick response to our demand letter and for accepting the Hulen Street Church ad,” confirmed First Liberty Institute Senior Advisor Jeremy Dees.
He noted that Hulu “and others at big tech companies” can avoid “this type of conflict by adopting advertising policies that do not discriminate against religious organizations, being transparent about their advertising policy, and applying them fairly.”
The church serves a “large” number of people in Fort Worth, and realizing that increasing numbers were working on Sunday, began a Thursday night service.
“To announce its new service time, the church created a 22-second video ad in which Pastor Wes Hamilton gives a short invitation. “The church successfully spread its ad across Facebook, Instagram and Google Ads, but although it appears to be in compliance with Hulu's policy The ad was originally rejected by Hulu twice.
A report on the dispute at CBN previously reported that Hulen Street Church accused Hulu of rejecting its ad “due to the claim that the site violated policies surrounding ‘religious indoctrination’.”
However, Dees pointed out that such a classification does not exist in Hulu's advertising policies.
His organization then delivered a demand letter encouraging Hulu to recognize and accept religious advertising.
Des explained to CBN what happened: “Hulu… has a set of ads that they allow people to place on the platform if you're an approved advertiser. Hollin Street Church… decided to open a new church.” [Thursday] Service time for people… who couldn't get to Sunday Mass, and they wanted to advertise it locally like they did in a lot of other places, so they became an authorized advertiser. They submitted their ad and it was rejected. “They submitted it again, and it was rejected again.”
The church's message was not at all controversial: “Does your work schedule or your busy family calendar not allow you to attend church on Sunday mornings? If so, I want to invite you to Thursday nights at Hollen Street Church beginning February 1st.”
Hulu, a company owned by Disney, initially claimed the ad involved “religious indoctrination.”
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