Facebook's 'gay-pride' rainbow flags face backlash

Facebook special "gay-pride" feature of rainbow flagged pictures has received backlash in Russia and across the Arab world.

Founder Mark Zuckerberg had announced the feature post US Supreme Court's ruling in favour of same-sex marriages, by changing his own profile pic, and though it has gained huge popularity, even among Indian users, not everybody likes the photo filter.

In Russia, where controversial laws ban providing information about homosexuality to people under age 18, several filters were created which the colours of national flags rather than rainbow banners across a picture, and a Moscow resident "Our response to the rainbow world ?#?Proudtoberussian."

A recent poll also showed that over 80% of Russians oppose legalising same-sex marriage, the BBC reported. Meanwhile in the Middle East, social media users came out strongly against the rainbow flag saying that it was a "message that hurt," while another said that the "innocent childhood symbol of rainbow was now distorted.

An Egyptian political science professor added that gay marriage "is not in harmony with society and culture". Egypt saw around 2,000 tweets talking about the rainbow motif, most of which were critical.

However, not all reactions were negative, as Egyptian TV presenter Muna Iraqi commented in support of "right to live and love freely, without any persecution". It should also be noted that same-sex marriage is not universally popular in the US, as about two-fifths of Americans oppose it, according to the Pew Research Centre.