Following the latest barrage of terrorist attacks that hit the city of Paris last Friday, the world has been trying to find ways to support the citizens of France. There were three days of national mourning, countless flowers have been laid, and multiple world landmarks - from the Empire State Building in New York to the historic Christ The Redeemer statue in Rio de Janeiro - were lit in the colours of the French flag. Amazon.com got in the act by showing a large French flag at the top of its site, with the word Solidarité (solidarity) prominently featured.
However, social media giant Facebook is being widely criticized for politicizing the events and giving its millions of users a chance to easily support the controversial American mission to bomb ISIS targets in Syria and Iraq. Beginning on Saturday, Facebook's 250 million users were given the opportunity to overlay the colours of the American flag - red, white, and blue - onto their profile pictures in order to support the deadly missions carried out by manned and unmanned planes. The missions have killed at least 459 civilians, including 100 children, in 52 air strikes as of August. According to Facebook, approximately 26.5 million of its users had taken the opportunity to support the United States as of Tuesday evening.
Facebook has been known to take controversial stances prior to this. Several months ago, the site gave its users the option of overlaying the colours of the rainbow onto their profile pictures, in order to commemorate the biblical account of Genesis 9, where God instituted a covenant with Noah by placing a rainbow in the sky and promised never ever to wipe the inhabitants of the earth off the planet ever again. Millions of Facebook users took advantage of this as well, which drew the ire of members or other religions or no religion.
From Our Los Angeles Bureau
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