‘Unplanned’ Director on Big Tech Companies: ‘Make the Algorithms Public’

Screenwriter and director Chuck Konzelman told Breitbart News that big tech companies should “make the algorithms public” in an effort to be more transparent about “what’s allowed and what’s not.” Konzelman is the co-writer and co-director of the recently released pro-life film, Unplanned, and offered his remarks in a Thursday interview on SiriusXM’s Breitbart News Daily with host Amanda House.

Konzelman, who spoke to a Senate panel at a subcommittee hearing on the stifling of speech on social media on Wednesday, told Breitbart News of the struggles that he and his business partners had faced over declined advertisements, as well as online censorship, which he believes has stifled the promotion and awareness surrounding the pro-life film, Unplanned.

The director suggested that one step in the right direction would be for big tech companies to make their algorithms transparent. “If the tech giants want to be protected by the special protection under the law that they have, I think that they have to make the algorithms public — that they use to figure out what’s allowed and what’s not,” stated Konzelman.

“I think they should be allowed to keep the mathematics secret — but that’s kind of a proprietary formula — I think that they need to show everything else. They need to be transparent as far as everything else, and look — I think they’ll resist at every turn, and I think it’s going to be a very long, very difficult fight, which is going to go on for years,” added the director.

Konzelman also spoke about the problems they had with Twitter, as well as Google, which had turned down “any and all banner advertisement” for the film.

“And then, [the film] finally came out, [Google] found a new objection,” added Konzelman, “They found some ticket event sales prohibition that they had on the books somewhere, which none of our market people had ever heard of — and then, on the night of our film’s release, our Twitter account was suspended.”

“Our next challenge that we will face — and we’re already well aware — is streaming,” continued Konzelman, who added that Unplanned is currently in the top few — if not the number one — independent movie of the year thus far, which would make the film “irresistible bait for streaming giants,” such as Netflix.

Konzelman said that a recent meeting between the film’s distribution chief and one of the streaming giant’s founders had resulted in “no appetite whatsoever” for Unplanned.

“They just don’t want it,” said the director.

When it comes to Amazon Prime, the director said that the streaming platform is currently funding a pro-abortion film. “So we know where the sentiments lie,” added Konzelman, who went on to also talk about the struggle they have had with obtaining license studio-owned music for the pro-life film.

“We were able to pay, we went far down the negotiation process — from one studio, we were then asked, ‘Is this a Christian film, and is it about abortion, and what side are you on?’ And when we told them honestly, they said ‘No, no no, no music for you,'” said Konzelman.

The film, as described by Konzelman during Wednesday’s hearing, is about “the true-life story of Abby Johnson, a former Planned Parenthood surgical abortion clinic director, who, after seeing an abortion take place in real time on a sonogram screen, the image created via the ultrasound probe that Abby herself was holding turned her entire worldview upside-down and became a pro-life advocate.”

You can follow Unplanned‘s Twitter account at @UnplannedMovie. The film is currently playing in theaters across the country.

You can follow Alana Mastrangelo on Twitter at @ARmastrangelo and on Instagram.