Michael Moore Threatened With Facebook Ban After Controversial ‘Support The Troops’ Post
Filmmaker Michael Moore has been threatened with a ban from Facebook after readers of sites like Fox News seized upon out of context remarks he made regarding the meaning of the term “support the troops” among US citizens.
In a Facebook status Thursday, Michael Moore decried what he perceives as a meaningless show of “support” for US servicemen and women backed up by little action, and began his thoughts with the following statement — seeming to clearly indicate that he wasn’t saying he doesn’t support the troops overall, but that what we define as support is in no way actual support and that we are being intellectually dishonest in saying so:
“I don’t support the troops, America, and neither do you. I am tired of the ruse we are playing on these brave citizens in our armed forces. And guess what — a lot of these soldiers and sailors and airmen and Marines see right through the bullshit of those words, ‘I support the troops!,’ spoken by Americans with such false sincerity — false because our actions don’t match our words. These young men and women sign up to risk their very lives to protect us — and this is what they get in return … “
Today, Moore laments that many who read a Fox piece taking his words out of context and highlighting a portion that criticizes US actions in going to war have taken to Facebook to report his page — and the filmmaker behind powerful pieces such as Bowling For Columbine and Fahrenheit 9/11 explains that after his words were misconstrued, the resultant anger has caused him to receive a ban threat from the popular social network:
“So how did Fox and company report on this? By taking out of context the words ‘I don’t support the troops’ and running stories about how I am attacking the troops. I can see how they might have misconstrued this — IF THEY HAD ONLY READ THE FIRST FOUR WORDS! Are they that stupid? Illiterate? Professional liars? All three? They tried to whip up a lot of anger amongst soldiers and veterans against me by stating the COMPLETE OPPOSITE of what I wrote.”
Moore continues:
“A few hours ago, I was sent a notice from Facebook stating that they have received a number of complaints about my post from the haters. Facebook informs me that, by posting my piece on the troops, I ‘may have violated Facebook policies.’ They say they are now deciding what to do. Of course, the only thing I violated was the fallacy that America supports its troops. We’ll wait and see if young Zuckerberg and company pull down my post or this site.”
A quick review of Facebook policies seems to indicate that while Michael Moore’s post may have ruffled some right-wing feathers, nothing he said has violated any clause except the “I just don’t like it” option in reporting. While the filmmaker’s page is still accessible, Facebook is also known to automatically ban users for a period of time if enough complaints are received.
Of course your comments about the troops were taken out of context. So were Bill Hicks’.You are in good company, @mmflint
— Steve Marmel (@Marmel) January 5, 2013
We reached out to Michael Moore regarding Facebook’s possible action, but have not yet heard back.
