Indonesia Cracks Down on LGBT Rights With Emoji Ban
With dozens of emojis available to convey emotions, dinner options, and weather conditions, it’s easy to engage in a wordless conversation on social media. But the selection of mini cartoons is about to get a lot smaller in Indonesia thanks to concern that some of the images don’t fall in line with the country’s cultural norms.
On Thursday, Indonesian officials requested that popular messaging and social media apps including Facebook and Whatsapp remove gay-themed emojis or face a possible ban in the Southeast Asian country, The Associated Press reports.
“Such contents are not allowed in Indonesia based on our cultural law and the religious norms, and the operators must respect that,” Communication and Information Ministry spokesperson Ismail Cawidu told Agence France-Presse. “Those things might be considered normal in some Western countries, while in Indonesia it’s practically impossible.”
Cawidu told the AFP that the government has asked Facebook, Twitter, and Whatsapp to remove emojis featuring same-sex couples or rainbow flags.
The government order comes after social media users rallied against Line, a popular messaging app, for offering stickers with gay themes in its online store, according to the AP.
Line has already vowed to remove the controversial images and issued an apology Wednesday on Facebook.
The backlash isn’t limited to Indonesia. Russian officials considered suing Apple for featuring same-sex couples in emoji form and violating its laws against “gay propaganda” last year, but courts decided the images were up to interpretation.
However, the emoji ban is the latest affront to LGBT expression from the Indonesian government. Homosexuality is not illegal in Indonesia, but it remains stigmatized in the socially conservative Muslim-majority nation. One region, the Aceh province, operates under Sharia law, with homosexuality punishable by flogging. In October, two women were arrested for sitting and hugging in a public place, according to the Jakarta Post.
On Thursday, Human Rights Watch called on Indonesia’s president, Joko Widodo, to condemn anti-LGBT rhetoric. Human Rights Watch called out several instances of vitriol from public officials, including the suggestion of Muhammad Nasir—the country’s research, technology and higher education minister—that openly gay students be banned from attending Indonesian universities.
While Human Rights Watch’s letter did not mention the country’s new emoji ban, it noted that anti-LGBT comments from public officials can sanction social stigma and violence.