Unpromoted, but not unnoticed

Chuck Konzelman, co-writer and co-director of the pro-life movie Unplanned, told a Senate panel Wednesday that Twitter and Google sought to stymie promotion and awareness of the film.

Unplanned tells the story of how former Planned Parenthood facility manager Abby Johnson became a pro-life advocate. The film has grossed nearly $14 million since its March 29 release despite an apparent media blackout and a host of marketing roadblocks.

Addressing the Senate Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on the Constitution, Konzelman detailed the various obstacles the film has faced. The Motion Picture Association of America gave it an R-rating, which the filmmakers disputed, for bloody images of an abortion. Numerous media outlets refused to promote the film, and Google Ads blocked its pre-release banner ads. Konzelman also cited Twitter’s unexplained suspension of the movie’s official account on opening weekend, nine months after the account was created.

Konzelman’s testimony was part of a hearing called by Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, titled “Stifling Free Speech: Technological Censorship and the Public Discourse.” The hearing dealt with the larger issue of social media platforms’ suppression of pro-life messages.

Twitter’s director of public policy and philanthropy, Carlos Monje, testified at the hearing, telling legislators that the user who created the @UnplannedMovie account had previously been suspended for breaking the social media platform’s rules. He noted Twitter’s policy of weeding out “repeat offenders” and said the company reinstated the movie’s account as soon as the suspension was brought to their attention and “became a trending topic on Twitter.”

Leaders from Facebook also testified Wednesday, but Google declined to send a senior executive to the hearing. The committee rejected Google’s offer to send Max Pappas, the company’s head of conservative outreach, and Cruz said he would call a separate hearing involving Google at a later date. Unplanned’s struggles with Google continued this week when users pointed out that search results categorized the movie as “Drama/Propaganda.” Google corrected the classification when it was “made aware of disputed facts,” a company spokesman told Fox News.

Konzelman formally called on the Federal Communications Commission to investigate “blanket refusals” of the movie’s advertising, calling them “highly unusual and highly discriminatory.”

While the incidents drew widespread outcry from conservative and pro-life groups, Konzelman warned that forthcoming pro-life films will likely face similar censorship: “In a digital age, exclusion from the digital arena isn’t just discriminatory—it’s the most insidiously effective form of censorship imaginable.”