Actor Dennis Quaid told podcast host Joe Rogan that Facebook was not allowing the movie “Reagan,” which he plays the lead role in, to advertise on the platform.
“Reagan” — hitting theaters on August 30 — portrays the 40th president’s lifelong crusade against communism.
“Censorship is happening to us through Facebook. Facebook banned advertising and a lot of the podcasts. This one will probably be banned on Facebook, as well. It’s been over the last couple of months,” Quaid told Rogan in a podcast uploaded to YouTube on Thursday.
The actor explained that Facebook initially said the reason for its decision is that the content in the film “was an attempt to sway an election.”
“I mean the last time I heard, you know, Reagan was on the ballot [was] 40 years ago,” Quaid said, referring to the former president’s re-election campaign in 1984.
“To me, just the act of banning and censoring the material is an attempt to sway an election,” the actor further argued.
WARNING: The following clip contains language that some viewers may find inappropriate.
Quaid noted that after a marketing executive for “Reagan” sent a letter directly to Mark Zuckerberg (CEO of Facebook parent company Meta Platforms) about the matter, Facebook changed its tune.
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Newsweek reported, “The letter from Eric McClellan, the director of digital marketing for the film, says that the most ‘egregious’ example consists of a post that contains the title of the movie and an image of Quaid along with a quote from the 40th president.”
“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,” the quote reads.
The letter recounted that when McClellan attempted to boost the post containing the quote he received a message from Facebook stating he could not because it “mentions politicians or is about sensitive issues that could influence public opinion, how people vote and may impact the outcome of an election or pending legislation.”
Quaid said in a written statement to Newsweek, “My challenge to Facebook is to ask if any of these tactics were used against other recent presidential biopics like Lincoln, LBJ, or Southside with You, a film about President Barack Obama, which was also released during an election year” in 2020.
McClellan also pointed out in his letter to Facebook that when he attempted to boost an interview Quaid had with podcast host Jordan Peterson, it was denied because the dialogue was “about social issues, elections or politics.”
In his statement to Newsweek, Quaid contended if his conversation with Peterson “could influence an election, then by their own tortured logic, this shutting us up would also be deemed election interference.”
The actor acknowledged to Rogan that there are comparisons people may draw between Reagan and current Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump.
“I think Reagan was a great president, and I think it gets perceived and compared to Trump, because there are comparisons to Trump,” Quaid said.
“If you get down to policy, there is a really good comparison to Trump, and maybe they see this as influencing an election by that comparison,” he added.
Trump followed Reagan’s example of a “Peace through strength” foreign policy, as well as pro-economic growth tax cuts, promoting domestic energy production and deregulation.
“You know it’s a free society. It’s about ideas we’re able to express, and we’re able to make up…your own mind about it, rather than deciding for people,” Quaid said.
WARNING: The following clip contains language that some viewers may find inappropriate.
A Facebook spokesperson did reach out to Newsweek four hours after the outlet published its story last week saying in a written statement, “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.”
