A Fake Facebook Ad Killed Off William Shatner. Captain Kirk Was Not Happy.

"Thought you were doing something about this?"
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Star Trek” legend William Shatner set his phasers on Facebook after a sponsored ad circulating on the social media platform’s Messenger service falsely claimed he had died.

A Twitter user alerted Shatner to the premature news of his death on Wednesday afternoon, the day before the actor turned 87. Shatner responded by asking Facebook to investigate.

“What’s up with you allowing this Acocet Retail Sales ad to pass your muster?” Shatner asked. “Thought you were doing something about this?”

The fake ad came at a tricky time for Facebook, which is currently catching heat over a huge data breach ― for which CEO Mark Zuckerberg finally apologized on Wednesday.

Rob Leathern, Facebook’s director of product management, responded to Shatner more than two hours later to reveal that the offending ad and page had been “removed” from the social media platform.

Shatner thanked Leathern for the prompt action and added what appeared to be a semi-serious request.

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