Although it was marketed as a fun way to customize bottles of soda, a recent customization tool is backfiring for beverage giant Coca-Cola.

In recent days, social media users have been highlighting evidence they say proves the system specifically precludes messages glorifying Jesus Christ while allowing other non-Christian deities.

Fox Business was among the first to cover the story:

 

Testing various words and phrases in the 18-character-or-less requirement, the Coke can customization blocks mainstream religious phrases like “Jesus is Lord” and political slogans like “Make America Great,” while permitting left-wing activism, right-wing group names and even terms associated with child exploitation.

Religious and faith-based expressions seemed to face strict algorithmic suppression compared to secular or alternative viewpoints. Mainstream affirmations like “Jesus is Lord” and “Allah is Lord” are blocked, while anti-theist and secular phrases like “God is Dead” and “Atheist Pride,” alongside religious greetings like “Shalom” and “Buddha Bless,” are allowed.

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This message popped up for rejected phrase or words: “The name or phrase you’ve submitted is not permitted. Names and phrases may not be permitted if they belong to a business, organization, celebrity, public figure, school, team or other trademark, are religious or political in nature, or could be considered inappropriate or unsuitable for other reasons.”

 

Here’s some of the attention the issue has been receiving on X:

 

It's time to boycot them

— Tevin Macharia Mukabana (@TevinMacharia) August 9, 2026

Once again Coca Cola shows you who they really are – remember when they said people were “too white for Coke”? I do. They can get lost. https://t.co/jIVp3ULIor

— Lara Logan (@laralogan) August 8, 2026

Parade added these details:

 

Coca-Cola has responded to the backlash, reassuring customers that along with a technical issue, the company has a separate review process for all religious phrases.

“We created the Share A Coke personalization tool for Coca-Cola fans to celebrate with one another and make connections by creating bottles and cans with special names or phrases on them. We are aware of a technical issue affecting the personalization preview tool where variations of restricted terms were visible in preview mode online; however, these restricted phrases would not have been approved for production through our review and moderation process, as they do not follow our content guidelines,” a Coca-Cola spokesperson told Parade. 

“While we review and take corrective action, we have disabled the preview feature and paused new online personalized product orders to prevent the creation of previews that use restricted terms that violate our guidelines. We have safeguards in place to prevent the approval and production of cans and bottles featuring religious, political, trademarked, inappropriate, or otherwise restricted terms and phrases. We will continue to enhance this tool based on consumer feedback.”

On the Coca-Cola website, it is reiterated that “Phrases that do not pass moderation are canceled, refunded, and not fulfilled.” At the time of this writing, personalized cans have been marked “out of stock” on the company’s website.

Here’s some additional commentary:

This is a Guest Post from our friends over at WLTReport. View the original article here.