Apple is presenting gay propaganda with its same-sex emoticons — and Russia isn’t Putin up with it any more!
According to a new report, the Russian police are stepping up their investigation of Apple for “promoting homosexuality” with its range of LGBT-friendly emojis.
And the punishment could be a whopping 800,000 to 1 million rubles — which is roughly what Apple makes in 2.5 seconds, if our calculations are correct.
The investigation into Apple’s emojis was reportedly raised after concerns from Russian lawyer Yaroslav Mikhailov, who argues that since companies are barred from promoting homosexuality to minors, Apple is breaking the law with its tolerant emojis, which first arrived with iOS 8.3.
Along with the fine, Russian Apple fans could also be disadvantaged for three months due to a ban on selling Apple devices.
This isn’t the first time Russian politicians have been, frankly, batsh*t crazy concerning Apple and its supposed gay agenda. Back in April, Russian politician Alexander Starovoitov accused Apple of distributing gay pornography with its U2 Songs of Innocence giveaway album — due to the fact that the album’s cover showed band member Larry Mullen Jr. hugging his shirtless 18-year-old son around the waist.
After Tim Cook came out as gay, politicians also not only argued that he should be banned from the country, but also extended the grievance to include Cook’s heterosexual predecessor Steve Jobs, who had an honorary statue taken down and sold off as a result.
Then there was the fault in Russia’s version of Siri (likely the result of Apple handing over work to a third-party Russian programmer), which resulted in Apple’s AI assistant issuing homophobic responses to questions about LGBT issues.
Via: Telegraph
Luke Dormehl is a U.K.-based journalist and author, with a background working in documentary film for Channel 4 and the BBC. He is the author of The Apple Revolution and The Formula: How Algorithms Solve All Our Problems … and Create More, both published by Penguin/Random House. His tech writing has also appeared in Wired, Fast Company, Techmeme and other publications.
2 responses to “Russia’s upset again about Apple’s ‘gay propaganda’ campaign”
In the future just for “Mother” Russia – Male in Bride dress emoji ! Poor homophobic people…
I wonder how many gays work in the United Nations where Putin is today and in one form or another help him out while there.
Regardless of what Russia says or does they have had and will continue to have them in mother Russia despite all their dark ages thinking. It’s one reason Communism isn’t working either in Russia or China. People hate being oppressed by the likes of Putin.