Facebook Ad Spreads William Shatner Death Hoax, But He's 'Not Planning On Dying'

Facebook has done it again on killing someone. This time, an ad hinted that William Shatner went to the great beyond, but nope, he's "not planning on dying."

Death hoaxes had become rampant nowadays, but it usually is hard to pinpoint who is at fault over the dissemination of these fake news. However, the case of actor Shatner is totally different, as it is easy to note how his supposed death circulated, through a Facebook ad.

The 86-year-old took his initiative to call out Facebook for an ad that seemed to be hinting his demise, though obviously he was out and about and, heck, was actually tweeting. Apparently, one concerned fan called Shatner's attention of the disturbing ad.

"@WilliamShatner I thought you might want to know you're dead," the user said and attached a screenshot of the controversial ad.

Facebook Ad

The perpetrator of Shatner's death hoax is a company named Avocet Retail Sales. In the screenshot, a close-up photo of the Star Trek actor can be seen, along with the title "Fans will always hold a special place for 'Captain Kirk.'"

However, Shatner will not easily let anybody, or anything, kill him without getting to the bottom of it. He got the attention of Facebook, wondering about their efforts to stop these kinds of nonsense.

Facebook, to be fair, immediately reached out to Shatner. Rob Leathern, a Facebook exec on product management, contacted the actor to inform that the ad had been taken down from the site.

"Thank you. I'm not planning on dying so please continue to block those kinds of ads," Shatner quipped.

Ironic Incident

The irony of this incident is that, Shatner is going to be 87 on Thursday, and already there are people who, instead of celebrating it with the actor, chose to spread his death hoax. However, it should be noted that this had become a trend, with what bored people considered a hobby for the past years.

Sylvester Stallone, for one, had been the talk of the town after he was rumored to be dead. Like Shatner, he announced he was healthy on his social media account.

Double Whammy

For Facebook, it currently is far from enjoying the week, as the double whammy seemed to take another beating of the platform. Shatner's death hoax just became the second mess the Mark Zuckerberg-owned social media site had gotten itself into, albeit this was a minor one compared to the pressing issue of data breach.