“There they go again.”
No, that wasn’t President Ronald Reagan but Dennis Quaid, the actor who brings the late leader to life in “Reagan.” The movie, out Aug. 30, recalls the president’s remarkable life from his days as a humble lifeguard to leader of the free world.
Getting the word out about the film has been “complicated,” to use a common Facebook phrase.
Quaid shared how Facebook, now officially known as Meta, initially banned “Reagan” marketers from boosting posts tied to the film on “The Joe Rogan Experience.”
“Censorship is happening to us through Facebook,” Quaid told the Spotify host. “The content in [the posts] was ‘an attempt to sway an election.'”
Newsweek reported that the problem began months ago after Quaid appeared on a podcast hosted by Dr. Jordan Peterson. Facebook prevented the film’s marketers from boosting a clip from that interview for brand awareness.
Another post that couldn’t be boosted on the platform? A photograph of Quaid as President Reagan with the following quote:
Don’t let anyone tell you that America’s best days are behind her—that the American spirit has been vanquished…We’ve seen it triumph too often in our lives not to believe it now.
Boosting posts allows for far greater reach as well as targeting select demographics.
Rogan and fellow new media giant Megyn Kelly slammed Facebook following Quaid’s allegations. The “Reagan” team sent a letter to Facebook’s founder Mark Zuckerberg requesting answers.
A Facebook official publicly apologized via Newsweek.
While there are no restrictions on this page that would prevent the admins from posting, we did identify a handful of ads from this account that were incorrectly rejected. This happened because our automated systems mistakenly determined that content about President Reagan required prior authorization in accordance with our policies for ads about Social Issues, Elections or Politics. This was a mistake and the restriction on the ads has been lifted.
The matter appeared to be settled though “Reagan’s” team said they never heard directly from the company.
Then another “Reagan”-themed post couldn’t be boosted by the film’s marketers just weeks before the movie’s release.
And another.
“Reagan” PR officials shared screen caps with HiT showing the platform blocked them from boosting new videos tied to the film. The clips in question hailed from both Rogan and Kelly’s respective podcasts.
Why?
The clips allegedly went against the platform’s “Advertising Standards, Community Standards or Terms of Service.
The host of “The Megyn Kelly Show” dubbed the flurry of Facebook moves “moronic”
“The irony in Facebook banning ‘Reagan’ ads is that this is a movie about a historic figure who, yes, was a politician, but whose bipartisanship and friendship with Democrats is an important part of the film,” Kelly told Hollywood in Toto.
“It’s a movie about America, and how we used to talk to each other and respect each other, irrespective of political differences. On cue, Facebook bans promotion of the film, apparently seeing it as socially divisive,” Kelly added.
Eric McClellan, “Reagan’s” director of digital marketing, denied the posts in question had anything to do with November’s presidential election.
“Our posts promote discussion about our film to our fans and others. But Facebook again denied our boosts, claiming they could ‘influence public opinion, how people vote and may influence the outcome of the election,'” McClellan told HiT.
HiT has reached out to Meta/Facebook for comment.
It’s ironic since Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg admitted in 2022 that his platform depressed news of the Hunter Biden laptop story at the behest of the U.S. government. That likely had far more potential impact on the electorate than conversations about a president who died in 2004.
A 2022 poll conducted by New Jersey-based Technometrica Institute of Policy and Politics found that eight out of 10 Americans thought the laptop story’s suppression impacted the 2020 election.
