A leader from the University of Dallas thinks that” a lot of conventional” and “religious” groups may be having issues with repression that are similar.
The University of Dallas, a Catholic school, is repeatedly subject to advertising censorship from software companies like Google and Meta, raising questions about discrimination against faith-based organizations.
Google has consistently blocked adverts for its doctoral program, while Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, has crippled advertising profile exposure for its digital marketing companion, according to data the Texas school provided to The College Fix.
The university’s vice president of marketing, Clare Venegas, expressed disappointment with these websites’ contradictory policies and the effect they have had on Catholic institutions.
When none of the College of Business adverts contain any spiritual information, Venegas told The College Fix in a new on-campus interview,” for some reason, Google continues to claim that they’re blocking us for spiritual reasons.”
Google allegedly blocked nine of the school’s paid ads, claiming it was in violation of its “religious information for personal marketing,” which does not “allow targeting users based on personality and belief,” according to documents reviewed by The Fix.
Venegas argued that the ads “don’t have anything to do with Catholic identity,” noting that the nine ads also include general advertisements like” Core Curriculum Ad” and” Student Life.”
She claimed this was the result of a similar incident in 2023, when a short brand video was turned down because it purportedly violated the same policy by making reference to “personal religious beliefs.”
Two emails asking for comment on Google’s policy, including whether it has consistently enforced its ad review process across all levels of government, regardless of religious affiliation, were not received.
Hugh Macken, the president and CEO of VMR Communications, a marketing firm with experience managing several of the university’s prior campaigns, is the founder and president.
After ads were blocked for using terms like” Catholic faith” and” Christ,” he led the appeal process with Google in both 2023 and 2024.
The Fix reviewed an email between Macken and Google that stated that the ads were not intended to “target people based on their religious beliefs, but rather on their likelihood of being interested in the University of Dallas, which is a Catholic-affiliated university.”
Google has not been the only source of the problem.
Nearly immediately after applying to run pro-life political ads for another client, Meta quietly blocked Macken’s access to the University of Dallas ad account.
In a recent email, Macken stated that Meta has still not provided a specific reason as to why they have disabled my access.” Despite more than 6 months of phone calls, live sessions, and email threads, I can still access the agency’s account,” Macken said.
He told The Fix,” The restriction is specifically directed at me personally and has resulted in my inability to use any of my marketing agency’s Meta ad accounts as well as those of our Catholic and pro-life clients.”
Venegas expressed concern that other religious-based organizations are also subject to online censorship.
” Our marketing metrics show that the majority of visitors to our website come from organic search. What we’re trying to accomplish with paid advertising on Google is reach people who are already looking for what we offer, Venegas told The Fix.
” But Google is essentially a monopoly on search, which is a big part of the issue. There are real challenges facing many conservative or religious organizations, she said, as evidence suggests that our advertising is disproportionately suppressed.
Venegas suggested that it might be time to respond more directly by appealing to Congress or the public eye.
We intend to contact our member of Congress because Google support has been poor, she said. We just need to bring this to the public eye and see what can be done to address it from a policy perspective.
Venegas said,” Sometimes it just takes them to put some pressure on the companies to fix some of the problems.”
MORE: Catholic University of America’s Turning Point USA group received a third-degree denial.
IMAGE CAPTION AND CREDIT: A laptop screen displays the word “censored.” OnePhoto/Shutterstock
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