Telegram shows support for Belarus protests with new opposition flag emoji. Telegram has voiced its support for the mass demonstrations against sitting President Alexander Lukashenko in Belarus by introducing a new animated emoji to replace the national flag of Belarus with the white-red-white flag.
In comparison to Belarus ‘s official red and green flag, the white-and-white flag is used as a sign of resistance to the Lukashenko regime. With the new functionality, the Belarusian national flag emoji transforms automatically to the animated opposition flag when a single symbol is typed into a post.
Telegram’s latest gesture of support for the opposition comes following mass protests against the Lukashenko. Apart from supporting the ongoing protests in Belarus, Telegram has emerged as one of the most crucial information sources amid the protests.
During the blackout, Telegram was basically the only means of connecting to the internet, a local source told Cointelegraph. This was apparently a result of anti-censorship tools enabled by Telegram. On Aug. 10, Telegram CEO Pavel Durov tweeted that the app remained available for most users in Belarus despite the outages.
[image: Vakim Sadovski]
