First Liberty Institute today sent a demand letter to Hulu, urging the platform to change its policy toward religious advertising after it rejected a Fort Worth, Texas church’s advertisement promoting its new weeknight church services. The demand comes as the U.S. Supreme Court hears arguments involving state laws in Texas and Florida that would increase transparency and accountability for Big Tech companies. The laws would require such companies to publish their user standards and then apply them fairly.
You can read the letter here.
“Treating a simple advertisement about church service times as indoctrination is absurd,” remarked Jeremy Dys, Senior Counsel at First Liberty Institute. “Hulu’s rejection of this simple, 22-second ad demonstrates exactly why clear, fair standards are needed throughout Big Tech. If a church cannot even advertise where and when it will meet, what else is Big Tech willing to censor?”
Hulen Street Church serves its local community in Fort Worth, Texas. Recognizing that a significant and growing number of people in the local area work on Sunday, like first responders, the church recently began hosting a new Thursday night service. To advertise its new service time, the church created a 22-second video ad in which Pastor Wes Hamilton extends a short invitation. The church successfully placed its ad through Facebook, Instagram, and Google Ads, but despite seeming to fit Hulu’s announced advertising policy, Hulu rejected the ad twice.
When Pastor Hamilton asked for the reason behind Hulu’s rejection of the ad, it said that the ad violated policies against “Religious Indoctrination due to asking viewer to attend Thursday services.” The words “Religious Indoctrination” appear nowhere in Hulu’s published ad policy.
In its letter, First Liberty urges Hulu immediately allow Hulen Street Church’s ad and to adopt policies to conform with the Texas and Florida state laws currently under review by the Supreme Court, by making its religious advertising policy transparent and applying its policy fairly and equally.
