Russia investigating whether to ban same-sex emojis from social media
THEY’RE some of the most popular emojis on social media. But they could be a huge problem in Russia.
RUSSIA may ban “gay emojis” from social media if they are found to be breaking the country’s laws against homosexual propaganda.
President Vladimir Putin has reportedly ordered a investigation into the offending emojis by the country’s state media watchdog.
It follows a complaint by Russian senator Mikhail Marchenko, who said emojis depicting same sex couples violated a 2013 law that outlaws the “promotion” of non-heterosexual relationships.
These include popular emojis of families with same-sex parents, and of girls kissing girls and boys kissing boys.
“These emojis of non-traditional sexual orientation are seen by all users of the social network, a large portion of whom are minors,” Senator Marchenko, of the far-right Liberal Democratic Party, said in his written appeal to the media watchdog, Roskomnadzor.
“But propaganda of homosexuality is banned under the laws and under the pillars of tradition that exist here in our country.”
Roskomnadzor has asked the youth group of president Vladimir Putin’s political party, the Young Guard, to form an “expert opinion” on this matter of “high social significance”, according to Russia’s Izvestia daily.
It is unclear why the senator has decided to complain about the issue now, as Apple introduced same-sex emojis with the release of its iOS 6 operating system almost three years ago.
Characters featuring a wider range of same-sex couples and families with same-sex parents was released by Apple in April this year.
It is also unclear Russia would enforce a ban on the emojis given their widespread use in social media.
Russia has been cracking down on the internet in recent months. Last year, in a move described as “draconian” by human rights groups, Russian authorities ordered bloggers to register with the government, to weed out anonymous postings, while in November Russia launched its own version of Wikipedia to provide superior information about the motherland.