Duolingo slammed for removing LGBTQ+ content in Russia amidst Pride Month

Social media buzzed with the circulation of Duolingo's compilation of activities for LGBTQ+ Pride Month. This was contrasted with information revealing that the company had removed all queer content from the Russian version of its app. As a result, Duolingo faced accusations of "pinkwashing."

Duolingo, the world's most popular language-learning app, boasts 56.5 million monthly users. Like many other corporations, Duolingo changed its social media logo to a rainbow version for LGBTQ+ Pride Month. On June 4, the app posted on the portal X, humorously altering the English days of the week to "Mongay," "Tuesgay," and so on.

On June 5, it was revealed that Duolingo had removed all direct references and allusions to queerness from the Russian version of its app 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.'"

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

On Tuesday, June 5, Russian news agencies reported that Duolingo had sent a letter to Roskomnadzor confirming the removal of 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 spokesperson for the app, owned by a U.S.-based company, issued a media statement: "Unfortunately, local laws prohibit us from including certain content in Russia. Duolingo’s mission is to expand access to quality education around the world, and we’re committed to maintaining access to our product everywhere that it is legal to do so." Many on social media commented that, like any corporation, Duolingo is primarily "committed" to making profits.

Corporate logo changes to rainbow colors during Pride Month are often referred to as "pinkwashing," which means using LGBTQ+ symbolism for "empty signaling," pretending to be on the right side of history on an issue important to many customers. "Pinkwashing" occurs when there are no actual actions taken to genuinely support the queer community behind the "rainbow" in the logo.

What Duolingo did exemplifies the highest 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+ community members. The term "pinkwashing" may be relatively new, but the long-standing heights of hypocrisy are more than sufficient to describe this situation.