Disney to Allow Political Issue Ads on Hulu After Democratic Outcry Over Claims of ‘Censorship’

Several Democratic campaign committees slammed Disney and Hulu Monday for blocking ads on abortion and gun control

Hulu

The Walt Disney Co. has reevaluated its policy surrounding advertisements for Hulu, and the streamer will now accept political issue ads.

This move comes after criticisms were leveled at the parent company earlier this week for blocking ads relating to abortion and gun control from running on Hulu.

“After a thorough review of ad policies across its linear networks and streaming platforms over the last few months, Disney is now aligning Hulu’s political advertising policies to be consistent with the company’s general entertainment and sports cable networks and ESPN+,” Disney said in a statement released Wednesday. “Hulu will now accept candidate and issue advertisements covering a wide spectrum of policy positions, but reserves the right to request edits or alternative creative, in alignment with industry standards.”

Disney and Hulu first came under fire Monday when the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, the Democratic Governors Association and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee all shared their frustration on social media over the ads being blocked from playing on the streaming service.

“@Hulu is REJECTING our ads calling out GOP attacks on abortion access and gun safety. Their shady policies amount to outrageous political censorship,” the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee wrote on Twitter (embedded below). The account then shared the ads that were not permitted to air in two follow-up tweets.

“Voters have the right to know the facts about Republicans’ actions on issues like abortion,” the Democratic Governors Association wrote. “@Hulu is doing a disservice to the American people by blocking voters from learning the truth about the GOP — or denying these issues from even being discussed.”

One of the ads in question calls the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade “the result of a coordinated Republican attack on abortion” and claims that the GOP “will not stop” until abortion is illegal nationwide. Another ad accuses the Republican party of being “more devoted to the gun lobby than taking common sense action to make our kids safe.”

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