Actor Dennis Quaid told podcaster Joe Rogan that his new movie, Reagan, has been targeted by Meta subsidiary Facebook.
“Censorship is happening to us through Facebook. Facebook banned advertising and a lot of the podcasts,” he told Rogan.
“Really? Just because — is it a positive film about [former President Ronald] Reagan? Is that what the idea is? Is that what is bothering them?” Rogan responded.
“The reason being was that the content in it was ‘an attempt to sway an election,’” he explained, adding, “I mean, the last time I heard Reagan was on the ballot, 40 years ago was the last time.”
Rogan followed up by asking, “Do you think [if] you made a positive Obama movie, it would sway an election?”
“Well, there was an Obama movie that came out during an election year in 2020. And you know nothing about that. To me, it’s just an act of banning or censoring that material in an attempt to sway an election,” the Reagan star said.
Eric McClellan, director of digital marketing for the Reagan film, had attempted to “boost” an ad on the platform but discovered that he could publish the ad but could not turn it into a paid advertisement to garner a broader reach for the film.
Facebook reportedly suspended the Reagan film’s account temporarily after it posted movie clips of Quaid as Reagan and has since called it “a mistake.”
“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,” the social media platform explained. “This was a mistake and the restriction on the ads has been lifted.”
“They said it was a ‘mistake,’” Quaid told Rogan about the social media network limiting the film’s advertisements on their platform. “They said it was their automatic systems that had detected it.”
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Rogan replied, “Oh, how convenient.”
The film, a biopic of the late former Republican president and starring Quaid, Penelope Ann Miller, and Jon Voight, is set to be released in theaters on Aug. 30.