Twitter launched an emoji intended to highlight the “Milk Tea Alliance”, a movement in which pro-democracy activists in Asia meet.

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AFP

It is quite a symbol.

Twitter launched on April 8 an emoji intended to highlight the “milk tea alliance”, a movement that saw the light of day last year, and in which pro-democracy activists in Asia find themselves.

This alliance - so baptized because of the taste of the inhabitants of Hong Kong, Taiwan and Thailand for this sugary drink -, gained momentum when, in the fall, the Thai activists, who demanded a reform of the government and of the monarchy, began to draw inspiration from the techniques used for several months in 2019 by pro-democracy Hong Kong protesters.

🧵Today we are launching an emoji for the #MilkTeaAlliance, an online solidarity alliance first started in April 2020 as a Twitter meme which has grown into a global pro-democracy movement led by activists and concerned citizens in 🇭🇰🇹🇭🇹🇼🇲🇲 and around the world.

- Twitter Public Policy (@Policy) April 8, 2021

This movement, which is a vast network of solidarity in the face of authoritarianism, has also spread in Burma, where condensed milk tea is the basis for breakfast, after the military putsch of February 1 that overthrew Aung San. Suu Kyi.

An emoji representing three different colors of milk tea

“To mark the first anniversary of the #MilkTea Alliance, we have designed an emoji featuring three different colors of milk tea from the regions where the Alliance was formed,” Twitter reported.

This image appears in any tweet that includes the hashtag “milk tea alliance” in English, Thai, Korean and several other Asian languages.

To celebrate the first anniversary of the #MilkTeaAlliance, we designed an emoji featuring 3 different types of milk tea colors from regions where the Alliance first formed online.

It automatically appears when you Tweet any of the hashtags below👇 pic.twitter.com/QiIBBbKfQc

- Twitter Public Policy (@Policy) April 8, 2021

"We believe that access to an open Internet is a fundamental right and we remain a defender and a staunch advocate of free speech and condemn them #InternetShutdowns," Twitter said accompanying its post with the new emoji.

"Always united, whatever the difficulty of the period", for his part tweeted Joshua Wong, figurehead of the pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong, at the announcement of this news.

The term #MilkTea used more than 11 million times since April 2020 on Twitter

The term has been used on Twitter more than 11 million times since April 2020, according to the social network, and has seen a further rise after the coup in Burma.

The military regime has in recent weeks ordered nightly Internet shutdowns and banned several social networks in an attempt to weaken the anti-junta movement.

The creation of this emoji follows the recognition by Twitter of the social movements #MeToo, to denounce sexual violence and #BlackLivesMatter, to denounce police violence against African Americans.

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