{"id":34438,"date":"2013-03-27T11:19:39","date_gmt":"2013-03-27T09:19:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=34438"},"modified":"2013-03-27T11:49:40","modified_gmt":"2013-03-27T09:49:40","slug":"battle-for-equal-rights-hits-social-media","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/internet\/34438\/battle-for-equal-rights-hits-social-media\/","title":{"rendered":"Battle for equal rights hits social media"},"content":{"rendered":"

As the US supreme court weighs in on the future of same-sex marriage in the United States, campaigns for and against the motion have set the Internet alight.<\/p>\n

People who venture onto social networking sites, Facebook and Twitter today, will be met with a lot of red.<\/p>\n

The Human Rights Campaign, in support of marriage equality for same-sex couples, has initiated a campain<\/a> that has seen many social network users change their profile pictures to the group’s equality sympbol.<\/p>\n

\"Equality<\/a>

Equality symbol<\/p><\/div>\n

The campaign is in response to two cases that the US Supreme Court is hearing this week in relation to state and federal laws restricting same-sex marriage.<\/p>\n

The first case is an appeal of California’s ban on same-sex marriage known as Proposition 8 – the other case is an appeal of the federal Defense of Marriage Act, which is a federal law that defines marriage as the legal union of “one man and one woman” for federal and inter-state recognition purposes.<\/p>\n

The campaign has been met with opposition from those who are against same-sex marriage, though pro-equality groups and supporters of the campaign have seen the campaign spread, with hundreds of thousands<\/a> of shares and likes (retweets and favourites) across social media.<\/p>\n

The campaign’s Twitter tag, #equality, is also one of the top trending terms in the United States.<\/p>\n

\"Congress<\/a>

The campaign is having impact – for and against.<\/p><\/div>\n

Billionaire backers<\/h3>\n

According to Forbes, not only have some of the world’s richest people come out in support for same-sex rights in the US, but have also spent a considerable amount of money for the fight over the years.<\/p>\n

Prominent billionaires have thrown their weight in support of same-sex rights in the US, many of which are well known in the tech space.<\/p>\n

While not all of the billionaires listed have put money into campaigns, they have all stood out, vocally, against the banning of same-sex marriage.<\/p>\n

This includes:<\/p>\n