Russia doesn’t like homosexuality and it doesn’t want its minors to, in any way, be exposed to this so called ‘social evil’ the country depicts it as. Vladimir Putin’s government is now considering blocking the social networking giant Facebook (which they already hate quite a bit) over gay-themed emojis.
The series of emojis on Facebook depicting two boys kissing and two girls kissing are part of its “Pride” series of emojis, which were included after last month’s historic Supreme Court decision obliging all U.S. states to allow gay marriage. While that is all well and good, Russia surely doesn’t care what the States believe.
The investigation was first started this week when Mikhail Marchenko, a senator in Russia’s upper house of parliament, noted the potential threat and submitted a written appeal to The Federal Service For Supervision of Communication, Information Technology and Mass Media (Roskomnadzor).
Currently, the investigation is taking place after being called by the senator from the region of Bryansk to check whether the emojis violate Russia’s controversial 2013 law against “homosexual propaganda” among minors. Reactive measures are going to be taken following the investigation, according to Time.
These emojis of non-traditional sexual orientation are seen by all users of the social network, a large portion of whom are minors,
said Senator Marchenko.
But propaganda of homosexuality is banned under the laws and under the pillars of tradition that exist here in our country.
An ‘expert opinion’ is to be formed by the Young Guard, the main youth group of President Vladimir Putin’s political party on this matter. Russian law allows blocking websites which could be considered as potential threats to the ethics of the country like promoting homosexuality among minors.
Denis Davydov, the chairman of the coordinating council of Young Guard, said that his organisation would ask professional psychologists to determine if these emojis are potential threats to the country’s minors.
Though, similar gay-themed messages and emojis are present in many other social networking sites like Twitter and even the latest iOS, it is unclear whether the government will be taking any steps against them.
IMAGE : FLICKR // C_osett // CC 2.0
