Bullied to succumb: Should tech companies bow to society’s homophobic demands?
As a member of the society, tech companies have the right — and obligation— to fight for justice
There are many reasons to be disappointed at the world these days. The latest was when, on Wednesday February 13, Instagram deleted a comic strip about daily struggle of being an Indonesian gay Muslim man.
The ban was confirmed by Indonesian minister of communications and informatics Rudiantara, following pressure from society to ban the comic strip’s account. The account, which boasts 6,000 followers, had been condemned by internet users as blasphemous and immoral for its depiction on the internal conflicts that a Muslim gay man faces on daily basis.
If you recall, this is not exactly the first time a tech giant succumbing to the pressure of homophobic groups in Indonesia. As recently as 2018, Google succumbed to the ministry’s request to remove several LGBT apps — mostly social networking or dating apps — from Play Store.
Also, do not forget that time when Go-Jek had to sanction its executive for posting a compliment on the company’s inclusive policies on his personal Facebook. While the executive was sanctioned for “violating the company’s employee social media guideline”, it is hard to separate the sanction from the public pressure that had called upon Go-Jek users to uninstall the app for supporting LGBT rights.
These incidents happened at least three times in the Indonesian market and I have reasons to believe that more is going to come as the country becomes more religiously conservative.
It is about time for us to beg the question: How long can tech companies succumb to the homophobic, human rights-violating demand of its public?
The first response to this question would be: Well, when running their operations in a country, businesses are obliged to abide to the positive law of said country. If Indonesia said you should pay tax, then you pay tax. If Indonesia said you should not have pornographic content on your platform, then you should not, unless you are willing to risk being banned.
But guess what? Despite some group’s effort to have them banned, being a homosexual is not illegal in Indonesia.
So if a tech company decided to follow through demands from groups or a ministry to ban LGBT content on its platform, they are not abiding the law, they are succumbing to pressure from hardline groups.
Also Read: World’s largest dating app for gays sets up shop in Taiwan
Here is the thing: On the other hand, we also have to understand that businesses can not afford to lose their customers. They need to maintain a certain a public image and a good reputation equals money.
However, innovation is meant to be for the betterment of society.
And we believe that in the case of tech companies, their innovation should not be limited to to their scope of work, or the services and products that they provide. It also lies in the value that they are propagating.
This is why, when tech giants such as Google make a mistake in the way they are handling sexual harassment cases, its employees did not just sit down and accept. They walked out; they called for changes.
As long as you are a member of the society, you are entitled — no, obliged — to fight for justice.
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Image Credit: Mercedes Mehling on Unsplash
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