Kirk Cameron’s new movie Unstoppable was banned from Facebook today . Well, that’s what the actor is saying.
Cameron claims that Unstoppable was banned by Facebook for being too “spammy.”
Cameron writes on Facebook: “Calling all friends of Faith, Family, and Freedom! Facebook has officially “blocked” me and you (and everyone else) from posting any link to my new movie at UnstoppableTheMovieDOTcom, labeling the content as “abusive”, “unsafe”, and “spammy”! I can’t even write the real link here, or Facebook would block this post too!! Try to post it yourself and see! We have been officially shut down by Facebook and unable to get any response from them. This is my most personal film about faith, hope, and love, and about why God allows bad things to happen to good people. What is “abusive” or “unsafe” about that?! Please help us encourage Facebook to unblock our website soon by sharing this post with your friends so more people can see this transparent, faith-building project.”
The Christian filmmaker urged his fans to fight the oppressive social network and share the link to his movie on Facebook.
And they did. Thousands of them. The Facebook post quickly gained more than 100,000 shares, more than 40,000 likes, and close to 8,000 comments. The majority of those comments talked about how it was shameful of Facebook to block such a well-intentioned movie and praised Kirk Cameron for doing God’s work.
Of course, there were a few other comments that claimed that Kirk Cameron had conjured up the entire controversy in order to promote his new movie. The proof? Well, working links. Several people posted working links to Kirk Cameron’s movie despite the fact that it had been “banned” by Facebook.
Facebook hasn’t commented on the controversy so it’s hard to say if Kirk is telling the truth about the ban. There is some pretty damning evidence, however, that points to Kirk Cameron misleading his fans.
A few hours after Cameron posted his message several people reported that the movie’s link was no longer banned. Most people chalked this up to a Facebook miracle while others grew a little skeptical of the controversy.
Of course, that doesn’t mean that Kirk Cameron lied. After all, the entire point of Kirk’s message was to get people to petition Facebook in order to get the movie’s link approved for the social network. Maybe the Kirk Cameron army succeeded and convinced Facebook that Unstoppable wasn’t spam.
Or, maybe Kirk Cameron lied to his fans, made up a phony story, and created a false controversy in order to promote his movie.
But Kirk Cameron wouldn’t do that, would he? Would he really lie to his fans?
Cameron posted his message at about 6:30 pm. The post quickly started gathering comments and within a few minutes someone posted a working link to the movie.
Now, Facebook’s time stamp isn’t very exact. The working link and Cameron’s Facebook post were both shared “4 hours ago,” and it’s possible that Facebook was able to correct its error shortly after the actor’s post.
But that isn’t likely. Mark Zuckerberg isn’t sitting at his computer carefully monitoring Cameron’s Facebook page. The tech team at FB is good, but they can’t fix every problem within minutes.
So, that leaves us with two conclusions.
Either Kirk Cameron made a mistake. He typed in the wrong URL or hit the wrong button and saw a “spam” message. The actor then overreacted and accused Facebook for banning his site.
Or, Kirk Cameron made up a fake story, lied to his fans, and created a fake controversy to get people to talk about his movie.
What do you think? Did Kirk Cameron lie to his fans? Did he make up the controversy to promote his new movie?
Todd Starnes at Fox News was the first to report on the Unstoppable Facebook controversy, and he has already followed up with Kirk Cameron. The actor says that his movie really was blocked from Facebook and thanked his fans for overturning the ban.
Cameron said: “This is a real victory… If we work together, we really do have a voice.”