Belarusians Ask Biggest IT Companies To Create White-Red-White Flag Emoji

• 15.02.2021, 13:00

A new petition has appeared.

A petition has appeared on actionnetwork.org addressed to Mark Zuckerberg, Timothy Cook, and Sundar Pichai. Belarusians are asking them to add the white-red-white flag emoji on Facebook, Instagram, Android, and Apple.

"In the wake of 2020 protests in Belarus after the August 2020 faked presidential elections, the real flag of Belarus, White-Red-White, became the symbol of the demonstrations against the current so-called president. It's been 7 months (as of February 2021) since the election in Belarus - seven long months of protests against a man who is overusing his power for terrorising, arresting, beating up and killing the citizens of Belarus. The 2020 election result was rejected by many countries, including members of the EU, the UK and the US.

The symbol of the protests should be widely recognisable and it should be possible to use it on social media. Whatmore, it is surprising for us that among many flags in emoji gallery, it is not possible to find the real Belarusian flag. It is shocking that CEOs of the huge platforms do not take responsibility and do not provide representation for their users, including Belarusians.

Belarusians deserve to have their flag among other national flags.

In September 2020 the messaging app Telegram changed the post Soviet Belarusian flag to the White-Red-White flag as an act of solidarity with protesters. We demand the same action from the other social media and software CEOs - from Facebook, Instagram, Apple and Android. And we demand that the steps are taken immediately."