Duolingo faces backlash for removing LGBTQ+ content in Russia

Social media circulated a compilation of activities for LGBTQ+ Pride Month by Duolingo. This was juxtaposed with the information that the company had removed all queer content from the Russian version of the app. Duolingo was accused of "pinkwashing."

Duolingo is the world's most popular language-learning app, with approximately 57 million active users monthly. Like many other corporations, Duolingo changed its social media logo to a rainbow for LGBTQ+ Pride Month. On June 4, the app was posted on portal X, where "day" in English, the names of the days of the week, were changed to "gay" - "Mongay, Tuesgay, etc."

On June 5, the world learned that Duolingo had removed all direct references and allusions to queerness from the app's Russian version at the local government's request. According to Reuters: "The company removed references in Russia to what Moscow calls 'non-traditional sexual relationships' after being warned by the Russian communications regulatory agency against publishing content classified as LGBT 'extremist'."

Russia last year expanded restrictions on what it calls "LGBT propaganda" as part of a broader crackdown on the rights of LGBTQ+ minorities. President Vladimir Putin, to foster domestic hostility towards the "West," has sought to portray the acquisition of equal rights by this minority in Western countries as proof of moral decay.

On Tuesday, June 5, Russian news agencies reported that "Duolingo sent a letter to Roskomnadzor confirming that it had removed materials promoting non-traditional sexual relationships from its educational app." Roskomnadzor is the Russian Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, Information Technology, and Mass Media.

The app's spokesperson, based in the United States, issued a media statement: "Unfortunately, local regulations prohibit us from including certain content in Russia. Duolingo's mission is to expand access to high-quality education worldwide, and we are committed to maintaining access to our product wherever it is legal." Many people on social media commented that, like any corporation, Duolingo is primarily "committed" to making profits.

Corporate logo changes to rainbow colours during Pride Month are often referred to as "pinkwashing," which is using LGBTQ+ minority symbolism for "empty signalling" of being on the right side of history on an issue important to many customers. "Pinkwashing" occurs when there are no real actions taken to genuinely support the queer community behind the "rainbow" in the logo.

What Duolingo did is perhaps the highest possible level of "pinkwashing." It's one thing to performatively "wave the rainbow flag" in June, but it's another to do so while actively contributing to the actual repression of LGBTQ+ minority members. The relatively young term "pinkwashing" is not necessary here; old, "good" heights of hypocrisy are sufficient.