Russian backlash against Facebook craze to celebrate US ruling on gay marriage
GAY marriage opponents in Russia and the Middle East have reacted angrily to a Facebook craze that saw users tweak their profile photo to include the rainbow flag.
The US social media giant released a tool to allow people on Facebook to tint their picture with the symbol of the equal rights movement to coincide with a landmark Supreme Court ruling in America legalising same sex marriage.
But internet users in conservative Arab states and Russia started their own counter-demonstration online, using nationalist emblems instead of the rainbow colours to signal their anger at the law change.
The ‘Celebrate Pride’ tool was launched by Facebook last week and over a million users opted to celebrate the ruling.
But one app developed in Russia that allowed users to superimpose the colours of the Russian flag was downloaded more than 4,000 times.
And pictures emerged online of patriotic Russians posing with guns, with users commenting with the hashtag #ProudtobeRussian.
A recent poll found four out of five Russians oppose legalising gay marriage and homophobic hate crime is increasing in the conservative nation.
Across the Middle East, people expressed their horror at the judgement, which coincided with celebrations around the world to mark gay pride.
One same sex marriage opponent in Syria wrote: "Damn you and your marriage. You have distorted our innocent childhood [symbol], we used to like the rainbow."