Line sticker shock

Cartoonish figures of the Lord Buddha have been dropped from the Line application sticker store here in Thailand after protests by Thai Buddhists, but they are still on sale elsewhere

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A screenshot of the Line sticker shop where a set of "Buddha" stickers could be purchased and downloaded for 30 baht, before they were removed after protests by Thai Buddhists.

Line sticker shock

Online reporters

Line Thailand, which operates the country’s most-popular mobile-messaging app, Thursday pulled three sets of “stickers” portraying images of Lord Buddha in “inappropriate” poses following online complaints.

Thousands of Thai Buddhists regarded the stickers — used to illustrate text messages in smartphone and desktop-computer software — as disrespectful because they portrayed the holy figure in funny, cartoon-like positions.

Led by a group called the World Fellowship of Buddhist Youth, about 40 Buddhist organisations worldwide launched an international protest campaign on change.org to have the recently introduced "Buddha", "The Mask Revolution" and "Saint Young Men" sets removed. The "Stop Buddha Line Sticker" petition had garnered about 6,500 signatures as of Friday morning.

WFBY leader Pornchai Pinyapong said he was informed by Line Thailand's public relations department that the company had removed the contentious stickers from its Thailand "sticker shop". However the emoticons remain available for purchase and download elsewhere in the world.

A source at Line Thailand, who asked not to be named, told the Bangkok Post the decision to remove stickers is made by teams in each country.

Mr Pornchai said Line's stickers had never broached religious topics before, and he wondered why the company decided to launch Buddha stickers globally.

He called on all Buddhists living in other countries to launch a similar protest to have them banned worldwide.

An online protest campaign against the Buddha Line stickers on Thai website boxza.com.

In a statement to the media, the company said the stickers were made by one of the creators on the Line Creators Market.

"Line has no intention to disparage Buddhism but we feel deeply sorry for any inconveniences that may have been caused," the statement said.

Line was launched in 2011 by the Japanese unit of South Korean Internet service provider Naver Corp after the earthquake-tsunami tragedy damaged telephone systems nationwide, forcing staff to resort to Internet-based messaging to communicate.

The app now has more than 400 million registered users, mainly in Japan and Asia, and is growing fast in other parts of the world.

Thailand marks the fourth country with official Line offices, following Japan, South Korea and Taiwan. As of May, Thailand had the second-most Line users globally with 24 million, trailing Japan's 51 million.

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