The Republican Attorneys General Association said Friday that Adobe has blocked the GOP group from running ads on its platform that oppose efforts to defund the police nationwide.
Internet advertisers use Adobe’s services to run ads online particularly on digital video platforms, namely wherever video ads are displayed on the internet with the exception of YouTube.
RAGA intended to run its “This is an Emergency” ad campaign showing destruction wrought by rioters and looters to audiences in Montana, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and West Virginia.
The GOP group received an email from Adobe telling them that the ads violate its policies on “violence or dangerous activity” after a review conducted by Adobe’s ad policy committee, according to an email reviewed by The Washington Times.
RAGA Executive Director Adam Piper wrote to Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen on Friday to request that he reverse the committee’s decision immediately.
“I ask you to cease your political intervention in support of violent rioting and immediately allow RAGA to again use your software,” Mr. Piper wrote. “In order to have a fully informed election and preserve the integrity of our First Amendment freedoms, the American people must witness the consequences of the Democrats’ inaction on violence in our major cities and the reality of the brutality occurring due to the ’defund the police’ movement.”
Regardless of whether Adobe chooses to allow RAGA’s ads to run on its platform now, the ads will likely not appear online much longer. Adobe plans to bar all political advertisers from doing so at the end of August, according to reports.
RAGA thinks the blockade of its ads in August could soon affect voters’ decisions.
“Election Day is less than three months from today, and early voting starts in some states as soon as the beginning of September, so I ask Adobe to immediately answer questions regarding their censoring of these ads and the ads commence running immediately,” Mr. Piper wrote to Adobe.
The ads are all under 40 seconds long and depict burning vehicles, looters running out of businesses, interspersed with local news reports, and the message “Democratic silence = violence.”
After reviewing Adobe’s decision, Mr. Piper wrote that Adobe’s actions only make sense if Adobe either agrees that protests have devolved into violence in cities run by Democrats or that Adobe is “blatantly shielding” Democrats from criticism and “the mob of lawless liberals” depicted in the ads.
Adobe did not respond to requests for comment.
• Ryan Lovelace can be reached at rlovelace@washingtontimes.com.
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