Kirk Cameron, the 42-year-old former TV star turned self-styled evangelist, is raising a fuss in social media, saying that Facebook blocked him. More specifically, Cameron is promoting his latest Christian film, called Unstoppable. His first statement, posted to his Facebook page, was a call to supporters.
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.
It turns out that a lot of people were simply sick of Kirk Cameron, didn’t want to see his stuff promoted on Facebook, and so had elected to hide it from their feeds. When you hide something, Facebook asks for a reason, giving you the choices of: uninteresting; misleading; sexually explicit; against my views; offensive; repetitive; and other. Once a critical mass of people who wanted the ad gone from their feeds had been reached, Facebook automatically filtered further posts.
Cameron’s supporters saw this as a violation of his First Amendment rights. Over 300,000 people shared that status. Some just rambled about whatever they were up in arms about at the moment.
“Mark of the beast is happening today… New healthcare reform will require us to implant a chip in our body… Some have already done so!”
Since then, Facebook has individually reviewed and unblocked the content, as they will always do when the blocking is challenged. Cameron, of course, took this as a victory for his cause.
Victory!! Friends, you did it! People tried to stop “Unstoppable” on Facebook, and because millions of us joined together as one voice, Facebook has apologized and and welcomed us back!
He concluded with:
Buy your tickets today.
UPDATE: Facebook has issued a statement, saying that the link was blocked after it was misidentified as a possible spam site:
“To protect the hundreds of millions of people who connect and share on Facebook every day, we have automated systems that work in the background to maintain a trusted environment and protect our users from bad actors who often use links to spread spam and malware. These systems are so effective that most people who use Facebook will never encounter spam. They’re not perfect, though, and in rare instances they make mistakes. This link was blocked for a very short period of time after being misidentified as a potential spam or malware site. We learn from rare cases such as these to make our systems even better,” says a Facebook spokesperson.
