We have just lived through a historic week in America.
After the Supreme Court’s rulings on the Defense of Marriage Act and Prop 8, the social media world rejoiced.
Google added a feature showing support for marriage equality: when you typed “gay” or “gay pride” into the search bar, up came a rainbow search bow. Facebook also released a new “pride” emoticon along with stats about the social network’s gay and lesbian community. According to the data miners at Facebook, 70% of Facebook users have a friend or family member that identifies as gay, lesbian, or bisexual.
Given that stat, it is not surprising how vocal the Facebook community was Wednesday about the High Court’s decision on DOMA and Prop 8. The social network reported more than four million mentions of the news on their site and 25 million profile pictures were changed, most to the HRC equality sign logo, to reflect the news.
In response to the Facebook users’ reaction to the Supreme Court’s decision, the site rolled out a new “pride” emoticon, which is a picture of the rainbow flag. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckberberg shared in the excitement Wednesday afternoon.
Abby Borovitz