Every year on June 12th, the Asian nation of the Philippines marks Araw ng Kasarinlan, also known as Independence Day, celebrating the declaration of liberty and freedom from Spanish control. And Facebook, the world’s biggest social network, was keen to show its support, creating banners for Filipino users to share amongst their friends. Unfortunately, in doing so, Facebook also suggested that the Philippines had declared war.
Keen vexillologists will immediately spot the problem with Facebook’s rendering of the national flag of the Philippines, as the social network’s jubilant graphic showed an image of the flag with the incorrect colour scheme. In Facebook’s version, the flag featured red on top and blue on the bottom, which is a nationally recognised version of the flag - but one that, according to Philippine law, should only be flown when the country finds itself in times of war.
The error was immediately spotted by Philippine social media users, and shared for all the wrong reasons.
Facebook says we're at war. Happy Independence Day, Philippines. May we truly be free. #Kalayaan2016 o #Kasarinlan pic.twitter.com/SktzRNSJMj
— Camille Conde (@Cam_Conde) June 12, 2016
Acknowledging its mistake, Facebook issued an apology to the people of the Philippines for its mistake.
“This was unintentional, and we’re sorry,” the company told The Philippine Star. “We care deeply about the community in the Philippines and, in an attempt to connect people on Independence Day, we made a mistake.”
