The rainbows didn't come without controversy. Or they go to the "Celebrate Pride" page Facebook set up. To get the Facebook-suppled filter, users click on someone else's rainbow picture. "It was a great opportunity to join the celebration," she wrote in a Facebook message. Michelle Zubiate Ferchaw, a mother of two who lives in Anaheim Hills, California, found out about the Supreme Court decision on Facebook, she "cried tears of relief and of joy." Many of her "equally joyous" Facebook friends were turning rainbow, so she did the same. Four years earlier, in what might have been the first large-scale profile-photo activism, Twitter users turned their photo green to support pro-democracy protesters in Iran. In 2013, some 3 million Facebook users changed their photos to show a pink-on-red equal sign in support of gay marriage. While the people who've used the overlay is a fraction of Facebook's 1.4 billion users worldwide, the number is far bigger than the last mass profile photo change on the site. "There's more to be done from voting, making donations, to speaking to your families, neighbors and coworkers," she said. Leslie Gabel-Brett, director of education and public affairs at Lambda Legal, a national nonprofit that focuses on legal issues affecting the LGBT community, said the overlay is "fun" and "effective." But she said it's also important for people know there are other ways to show support. James are among those that have used the filter. Arnold Schwarzenegger, Leonardo DiCaprio and "Fifty Shades of Grey" author E.L. Rainbow-tinted celebrities have popped up all around, and not just Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg. The rainbows are the latest sign of the important place social media has taken in our lives, when it comes to self-expression, politics and privacy. Call it a mark of a shifting tide in public opinion. People have been covering their profile photos with the Facebook-supplied overlay that uses the best-known symbol of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights movement: the rainbow. Supreme Court ruled on Friday that marriage is a right guaranteed under the Constitution regardless of a person's sexual orientation. More than 26 million Facebook profile photos have taken on a rainbow hue in the days since the U.S. Nicole DeMeo, chief marketing officer of global mobile marketing company Glipsia, said to Mashable that all forms of data can be used to assist marketing.NEW YORK - You may have noticed your Facebook friends getting considerably more colorful.
Given the social media's history of user data collection, speculation has arisen that the rainbow filter tool could be used for similar purposes, analysing behaviour patterns and using it to serve its advertising platform.
The figures illustrate that Facebook continues to closely track and collect data on its users just one year after it emerged that the company had been conducting secret experiments by manipulating peoples news feed to show a disproportionate number of positive or negative ads in order to study mood. More than 26 million Facebook users adopted the rainbow filter over their profile picture to show support for LGBT rights after the U.S Supreme Court legalised gay marriage throughout the entire country.