Indonesia fights LGBT Emoji

The Indonesian government demanded that applications and social networks remove all emoji with images of lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgender people, arguing that such images cause unrest in a country where the vast majority of the population are Muslim. The Japanese Line Messaging app has already removed the stickers from the regional version of its service and apologized to the country's government, according to Coconuts Jakarta . WhatsApp will also be asked to remove provocative, in the opinion of the country's authorities, stickers.

“We voluntarily removed LGBT Emoji because we were aware that there were some problems due to the cultural characteristics of the country,” Line representatives told The Financial Times. The Indonesian government stressed in its statement: “We have banned these images because they can cause social unrest, especially among parents [...]. The government cannot allow the use of LGBT images, as they do not fit into our religious and cultural norms ".

Indonesia is a secular state, but almost 90% of the 255 million population are Muslims and their religion has a great influence on the social and cultural life of the country. Although there are no laws in Indonesia that prohibit homosexual relationships, in some states they take a tougher stance. For example, in October last year, in Banda Aceh province, according to Sharia law, police arrested women who were embracing in public places.
')
While Line was the first application to fulfill government requirements (as of 2014, Indonesia is Line's second largest market), it may be more difficult for other companies, even if they are willing to follow local “customs.” According to the Quartz report , LGBT Emoji removed Line from its own app store. In other companies and social networks, LGBT topics are more integrated. Apple, for example, has emoticons depicting same-sex couples coming from out of the box software.

Via the verge