Facebook’s rainbow-flag “pride” emoticon, temporarily available on the social media platform during the month of June, is reportedly unavailable for users in some countries that ban homosexual practices.
The decision is spurring criticism from members of the LGBT community who see the company as putting access to lucrative foreign markets ahead of the company’s generally progressive politics.
“Users in Egypt, Palestine, Bahrain, Lebanon, Singapore, Russia, among other countries, are unable to access to LGBT flag,” reported the U.K.’s Pink News on Wednesday.
Pink News observes that Facebook’s official statement announcing the rollout may have been a clue to the self-censorship.
“People in major markets with Pride celebrations will be able to use a temporary rainbow reaction during Pride month,” read the Facebook statement, Pink News reported.
“It kind of feels like Facebook higher-ups are afraid of losing whatever percentage of their user base are hateful bigots so they hide it behind liking this page so that nobody who would get upset will accidentally see it,” Pink News quoted a commenter on one Facebook page.
The Menlo Park, Calif.-based tech company has previously been criticized for playing along with the censorship of authoritarian regimes.
Facebook previously engendered criticism last November when it reportedly agreed to censor content at the request of communist officials in China.
“The social network has quietly developed software to suppress posts from appearing in people’s news feeds in specific geographic areas, according to three current and former Facebook employees, who asked for anonymity because the tool is confidential,” the New York Times reported at the time.
And just last month, according to Vice News, Facebook censored a video that portrayed Thailand’s king in a less than flattering light. The company confirmed the decision and defended it as the cost of doing business globally.
“When governments believe something on the internet violates their laws, they may contact companies like Facebook and ask us to restrict access to that content,” Vice News quoted an unnamed Facebook spokesperson.
Insulting the monarchy is a felony offense in Thailand that can land an offender in prison for up to 15 years, Vice reported in December 2015.
• Ken Shepherd can be reached at kshepherd@washingtontimes.com.
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