Line Thailand withdraws controversial Buddha stickers

Line Thailand, the country's most popular mobile messaging app, on Thursday withdrew three sets of "stickers" depicting the Buddha.

The pictures, which retailed for 30 baht and could be used to illustrate text messages or desktop computer software, had disturbed devout Buddhists. They considered the pictures disrespectful because they depicted the holy man in funny, cartoonish poses.

Led by a group calling itself the World Fellowship of Buddhist Youth, forty Buddhist organizations on the action website change-org had launched an international protest campaign against the recently introduced three sets: Buddha, The Mask Revolution and Saint Young Men. The 'Stop Buddha Line Sticker' had garnered 5.700 signatures by Thursday.

The stickers were only removed by Line Thailand. Elsewhere in the world, the emoticons are still for sale, as Line teams are only responsible for their own country. Line Thailand has apologized for any inconvenience in a statement. "We have no intention of denouncing Buddhism."

Line was launched in 2011 by the Japanese unit of the South Korean internet service provider Naver Corp after the earthquake and tsunami made telephone traffic impossible. Line now has 400 million registered users, mostly in Japan and the rest of Asia.

Thailand was the fourth country where Line launched after Japan, South Korea and Taiwan. In terms of number of users, Thailand is second with 24 million. Japan takes the cake with 51 million users.

(Source: website Bangkok Post, August 21, 2014)