"I’m not planning on dying so please continue to block those kinds of ads," William Shatner wrote

William Shatner Says He's 'Not Planning on Dying' & Calls Out Facebook After Ad Suggests He Died

William Shatner has not beamed up to the great beyond.

The Star Trek actor, 86, took to Twitter on Wednesday to dispel rumors that he had died, and called out Facebook for supporting an advertisement that seemed to suggest he had passed away.

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His response came shortly after a Twitter user alerted him that a company called Avocet Retail Sales had sponsored a Facebook ad mourning his supposed death. “@WilliamShatner I thought you might want to know you’re dead,” the user wrote, along with a screenshot of the ad.

Less than a half hour later, Shatner posted his own message calling out the social media company for spreading the phony news. “Hey @facebook isn’t this your messenger app? What’s up with you allowing this Acocet Retail Sales ad to pass your muster? Thought you were doing something about this?” he wrote.

Several hours after Shatner’s tweet, Facebook’s director of product management Rob Leathern messaged the actor to let him know that the ad had been removed. “Thank you,” Shatner replied. “I’m not planning on dying so please continue to block those kinds of ads.”

A rep for Facebook did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment.

The macabre mixup came just a day before the actor’s 87th birthday on Thursday.

Fortunately, Shatner’s in good company when it comes to celebrity death hoaxes. In February, Sylvester Stallone took to Instagram to deny false reports that he was dead. He shared a photo example of the hoax, with the caption, “Please ignore this stupidity… Alive and well and happy and healthy… Still punching!”

News of Stallone’s fake death originally began circulating on Facebook in 2016. He didn’t directly address the hoax at the time – he just continued being alive until people got the picture.

The company’s CEO and co-founder Mark Zuckerberg apologized for the breach in a statement on Wednesday, saying, “We have a responsibility to protect your data, and if we can’t then we don’t deserve to serve you.”