For a few days in April, the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation ran afoul of one of the most powerful entities on the internet, Google Ads.

RMEF spokesman Mark Holyoak explained what happened to bring his conservation organization into disfavor with Google Ads.

“We’ve had a Google Ads account for eight or nine years now, and we just did another one last month,” said Holyoak. “We got a note from a Google employee that said ‘hunting is against company policy and practice, and therefore we can’t accept your advertising,’ which was strange because we had advertised with them for some time.”

Holyoak said RMEF reached out to Montana’s Congressional delegation for help.

“In the course of one day we were already in communication with our Congressional delegation and we let them know this thing had happened. Just like that, Representative Greg Gianforte put out a letter and Senator Steve Daines signed it. They sent it to Google. We also found out that Senator Jon Tester mad a call as well.”

Holyoak said Montana’s Congressional delegation obtained instant results.

“Within a matter of hours Google reached out to us and said it was an oversight, it shouldn’t have happened and you’re good to go, just continue on with business as usual.”

Holyoak said the RMEF was not able to advertise between April 25 and May 3, and that there was no way to quantify any possible losses from the interruption.

Attached is the video that brought about the objection from Google Ads.

“Our intent as an organization is to promote responsible content with an emphasis on conservation, and our mission, which is to ensure the future of elk, other wildlife and our hunting heritage,” he said.

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