Twenty-six million people adopted that Facebook-provided pride flag filter for their profile after the ruling, according to the tech company. Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage in June. Facebook told NPR it has tried this kind of thing only once before, after the U.S.

Facebook prompted users to adopt the imagery with the following words: 'Change your profile picture to support France and the people of Paris.'Īs popular as the French flag filter has been on Facebook over the past week, it's a relatively new feature. That image of the French flag, strewn all over Facebook, demonstrates how the modern Internet works - a symbol that was meant to be a universal representation of grief instead became divisive.įacebook wouldn't tell us how many, but it's only fair to assume that millions of people added a blue, red, and white French flag filter to their Facebook profile photos in the days following this month's terrorist attacks in Paris. For some, it also became a symbol of privilege, bias, selfishness, exploitation and even war. Over the past week, one nation's flag became a symbol of mourning and solidarity.

Facebook's french flag profile photo filter.