Sochi Olympics and Google Doodle
Thursday’s Google Doodle is a not-so-subtle pre-Olympics shot at Russia’s less-than-stellar record on gay rights. The doodle (which is also featured on Google’s .ru Russia address) features a series of winter athletes set in rainbow colors, with a pointed quote from the Olympic Charter below Google’s search bar. Clicking the doodle itself also points users to the Olympic Charter.
Sochi Olympics.
Google search engine marked Friday’s opening of the Winter Olympic Games in Sochi with a new doodle that contains the rainbow colors of the LGBT emblem and a quote from the Olympic Charter.
The doodle appeared to be a thinly veiled response to a recently adopted Russian law banning the promotion of homosexuality among minors. The law has attracted international criticism in the run-up to the Olympics.
The doodle features the main sporting events that will be taking place in Sochi, including skiing, snowboarding and curling, each depicted inside a brightly colored box. The doodle is also featured on Google’s Russian site.
The Olympic Charter quote underneath the doodle reads – “The practice of sport is a human right. Every individual must have the possibility of practicing sport, without discrimination of any kind and in the Olympic spirit, which requires mutual understanding with a spirit of friendship, solidarity and fair play.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0keZUxBGYY0
The doodle includes different winter sports such as skiing, snowboarding and curling that will feature at this year’s Winter Olympics held in Sochi.
Each letter is in a different colour of the rainbow, a nod to the row of gay rights in the country which has overshadowed the opening of the games on Friday.
It also features a quote from the charter, which says that everyone “must have the possibility of practicing sport, without discrimination of any kind.”
There have been protests about holding the games in Russia because of the country’s anti-gay laws which bans information on homosexuality being given to anyone under 18.
On Thursday 200 authors including Salman Rushdie and Carol Ann Duffy, the Poet Laureate, signed an open letter criticising the restriction on free expression in the country. The letter condemns recent gay propaganda and blasphemy laws as well as the recriminalisation of defamation, saying these put writers at risk.
Ban Ki-moon (the UN secretary general) used a speech to the International Olympic Committee on Thursday to raise attention about attacks on members of the gay community.