The movie titled ‘Unplanned’ follows the true story of a Planned Parenthood clinic director turned pro-life activist, and was produced by Christian production company Pure Flix. It bills itself as “exposing the truth” about the family-planning organization, which it claims is only interested in money.
Twitter suspended the movie’s account seemingly without explanation last week, one day after its official premiere, but the backlash on the social media platform was swift, with pro-life and conservative commentators publicizing the suspension and demanding answers on the blackout. After the outcry, Twitter lifted the suspension, having decided that “after further review,” the account did not actually violate any rules.
It appears the suspension could have been the result of pro-choice users repeatedly “maliciously and falsely” reporting Unplanned’s account to Twitter — but the entire thing seems to have backfired, as the movie’s follower count shot up dramatically to over 100,000 soon after its account was restored.
But the saga continued, as Twitter users then suddenly began reporting that they had mysteriously been unfollowed from the movie’s account — and some claimed that they were not able to follow it at all. However, the account now has more than 200,000 followers.
The movie has been lauded by conservative media and panned by liberal media as pro-life “propaganda.” Twitter’s action against the movie didn’t seem to bother mainstream media though, with few major outlets reporting on the weekend-long Twitter drama.
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Major television networks in the US, including the Hallmark Channel and the USA Network, also refused to run the movie’s ads — and it was given an R rating by the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) due to some graphic abortion scenes. The movie producers called the decision “deeply flawed” given that films featuring “graphic sex, violence, degradation, murder and mayhem” have been given PG-13 ratings.
Despite the pushback, the movie had a surprisingly strong opening weekend, pulling in $6.1 million and landing in fifth place.
The movie has enjoyed support from conservative politicians, with former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee encouraging his Twitter followers to see it and calling Planned Parenthood a “money-making baby killing machine,” while former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin called Unplanned a “great movie full of shocking truth” about the “anti-child movement.”
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