William Shatner rants at Facebook over death hoax
It's a brave person who angers the original Captain James T. Kirk – and now Facebook is feeling the wrath of former Star Trek actor William Shatner.
As if the social media giant wasn't having a bad enough week – what with the news breaking that millions of users may have had their data compromised – a dodgy ad has now been spotted on its Messenger app.
A Twitter user brought up the issue when they tweeted Shatner a screengrab of an ad that had popped up on their Messenger app, by a company called Avocet Retail Sales.
Hey @facebook isn’t this your messenger app? What’s up with you allowing this Acocet Retail Sales ad to pass your muster? Thought you were doing something about this? https://t.co/1fFriJ8PRu
- William Shatner (@WilliamShatner) March 21, 2018
The sponsored advert featured a photo of Shatner and the line: "Fans will always hold a special place for 'Captain Kirk', after William was found..."
A line under the photo also read: "Beloved Sci-Fi Actor Found D...", followed by a link titled "Learn More".
The Twitter user sent the picture to Shatner, writing: "I thought you might want to know you're dead."
Clearly very unimpressed, Shatner responded with: "Hey @facebook isn't this your messenger app? What's up with you allowing this Acocet Retail Sales ad to pass your muster? Thought you were doing something about this?"
Thank you. I’m not planning on dying so please continue to block those kinds of ads. https://t.co/9f3k3uN5z4
- William Shatner (@WilliamShatner) March 21, 2018
Another Twitter user, who explained that he worked for Facebook, soon responded by saying: "Hi, I'm from Facebook. Thanks for letting us know about this. We have removed this ad and Page from Facebook."
And the actor was ready with a withering reply, writing back: "Thank you. I'm not planning on dying so please continue to block those kinds of ads."
Shatner is in fact set to celebrate his 87th birthday today (March 22) – let's hope that the death rumours haven't put him off his birthday cake.
The actor has also recently been busy trolling the stars of that other well-known sci-fi movie franchise, Star Wars, by making a dig at Luke Skywalker actor Mark Hamill and his new star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
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