Facebook temporarily suspended Roger Ebert's account after insensitive Ryan Dunn tweets
(CBS) - Movie critic Roger Ebert's Facebook account was temporarily shut down yesterday morning as a result of people complaining about his posts regarding the "Jackass" star, according to Entertainment Weekly.
"Facebook has removed my page in response, apparently, to malicious complaints from one or two jerks," Ebert tweeted on June 21. "Facebook! My page is harmless and an asset to you. Why did you remove it in response to anonymous jerks? Makes you look bad."
Ryan Dunn was killed in a car crash Monday morning along with passenger Zachary Hartwell, a 30-yar-old Iraq war veteran, in West Goshen Township near Philadelphia. Dunn's Porsche careened off the road and into the woods. Reports have said Dunn had three light beers and three shots while at the pub with friends.
After photos of Dunn drinking prior to the accident were discovered on his Tumblr, Ebert took to Twitter and said, "Friends don't let jackasses drink and drive."
Friends and fans found Ebert's tweet to be cruel. Bam Margera, Dunn's best friend and "Jackass" co-star, tweeted back, "I just lost my best friend, I have been crying hysterical for a full day and piece of s--- Roger Ebert has the gall to put in his 2 cents about a jackass drunk driving and his is one, f--- you! Millions of people are crying right now, shut your fat f---ing mouth."
Facebook has since restored Ebert's account after an hour. A rep from the social network said it was an error.
In a blog post for the Chicago Sun-Times, Ebert admitted he tweeted too soon. But, he stands by his comments, believing no one should drive drunk or too fast on a public highway...
"I don't know what happened in this case, and I was probably too quick to tweet," he said. "That was unseemly. I do know that nobody has any business driving on a public highway at 110mph, as some estimated - or fast enough, anyway, to leave a highway and fly through 40 yards of trees before crashing. That is especially true if the driver has had three shots and three beers. Two people were killed. What if the car had crashed into another car?"
