Dennis Quaid accuses Facebook of restricting ability to promote 'Reagan' film

Actor Dennis Quaid, star of the upcoming biopic about President Ronald Reagan, has accused Facebook of restricting the ability to promote the film ahead of its August 30 theater release date.

In an email to Newsweek, Quaid wrote, "Facebook is once again censoring the free flow of ideas, deciding what's best for us to see and hear; only this time it's throttling advertising and promotion for my movie about Ronald Reagan."

Eric McClellan, director of digital marketing for the film, sent a letter to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg stating that marketers have encountered "numerous problems" when trying to "boost" or post content related to the film, titled Reagan.

McClellan said that the most "egregious" example was a post that included an image of Quaid in the film along with the movie title and a quote from President Reagan.

"Don't let anyone tell you that America's best days are behind her—that the American spirit has been vanquished," the quote read. "We've seen it triumph too often in our lives not to believe it now."

The letter stated that Facebook allowed the post on the platform, but blocked marketers from being able to "boost" the post through paid advertisements. McLellan said that when attempting to boost the post, he was told that he couldn’t 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."

"Like the old Soviet Union—are we turning into a country of tech oligarchs who control the platform of groupthink to silence the individual or 'other' groups," Quaid wrote.

Quaid later added that Facebook has been making decisions regarding advertising without having seen the moving, stating, "Zuckerberg is ultimately responsible for all of this because his company says it might influence the presidential election, but the last time Ronald Reagan's name was on the ballot was 40 years ago."

The team in May posted a clip of Quaid appearing on Jordan Peterson’s podcast, and when McClellan attempted to boost the clip, Facebook said he could not because the post was "about social issues, elections or politics."

Facebook threatened after the May instance that such posts "may result in your account being disabled or suspended," McClellan wrote in the letter, adding that the page was in fact suspended after that. 

The letter noted that the account was suspended a second time, after posting an interview of Quaid with Patrick Bet-David.

Warnings that the page received included, "You're temporarily restricted from posting statuses" due to unspecified "Community Standards" violations.

"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," Quaid told the outlet.