More than 26 million Facebook users go rainbow for Pride
In honour of Pride last weekend, and the US Supreme Court’s verdict on same-sex marriage, more than 26 million Facebook users applied a rainbow filter to their profile picture.
After the process to allow users to apply the rainbow filter was developed by two interns, it was implemented by Facebook last week.
As well as 26 million users changing their profile pictures, including countless celebrities and politicians, over half a billion likes and comments were given to the photos.
One notable user of the rainbow filter was Arnold Schwarzenegger, who gave a brilliant response to a user who said they were going to unlike his page over the rainbow.
The former Governor of California was joining in the Pride celebrations on Facebook – where users were adding a rainbow filter to their profile pictures.
He was also celebrating the Supreme Court ruling in favour of same-sex marriage across the United States.
But one fan wasn’t so happy, saying: “What’s wrong with [you] Arnie? I have to unlike…”
The Terminator star responded simply with one of his most famous lines: “Hasta la vista”.
Facebook has been criticised by some members of the LGBT community, as its real name policy has come under attack from many people different who have fallen foul of it – drag artists and performers who want to use their stage name, trans people who have no legal recognition of their new name, people hiding from abusers who want to use a pseudonym and even some Native American people, whose names Facebook appears not to believe are real.
