Hong Kong, China:
Twitter has launched an emoji to spotlight the “#MilkTeaAlliance” on line protest movement that has forged hyperlinks involving pro-democracy activists across Asia, the social media giant stated Thursday.
The alliance — named for the shared adore of sugary tea drinks across Hong Kong, Thailand and Taiwan — emerged final year in an expression of cross-border solidarity and shared worry of authoritarian China.
The campaign gained steam at a time when Hong Kong was emerging from months of pro-democracy protests and urban youth in Bangkok and other Thai cities had been starting their personal street confrontations with authorities, demanding reform to the country’s military-drafted constitution and other rights.
It has considering that spread to Myanmar — exactly where tea with condensed milk is a staple breakfast accompaniment — soon after a coup ousted the country’s civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi in February, sparking a mass uprising.
“To celebrate the first anniversary of the #MilkTeaAlliance, we designed an emoji featuring 3 different types of milk tea colours from regions where the Alliance first formed online,” Twitter stated on Wednesday.
The image seems in any tweet featuring the hashtag in English, Thai, Korean, and various other Asian languages.
“Always in solidarity, no matter how hard the times,” veteran Hong Kong pro-democracy Joshua Wong tweeted in response to the news, applying the English and Chinese versions of the hashtag.
The term has been employed on Twitter more than 11 million occasions considering that final April, the platform stated, with usage once again spiking soon after the Myanmar coup.
The military regime there has imposed overnight web shutdowns and blanket mobile information restrictions to attempt and bring weeks of unrest to heel.
It has also directed nearby telecom service providers to block access to social media web-sites, which protesters have skirted by applying virtual private networks and foreign SIM cards.
“We strongly believe that having access to the free and #OpenInternet is an essential right and remain a staunch defender and advocate of free expression and condemn #InternetShutdowns,” Twitter stated in its announcement of the new emoji.
Thursday’s move follows comparable recognition by Twitter in current years of the #MeToo and #BlackLivesMatter social movements, soon after the respective international campaigns against sexual abuse and in help of racial justice.
(This story has not been edited by TheSpuzz employees and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)