Interns were behind Facebook’s rainbow filter

In celebration of Pride weekend a week ago, over 26 million Facebook users added a rainbow to their profile pictures via a feature on the site’s Celebrate Pride page.

Alex Schultz, vice president for growth at Facebook and an out-and-proud gay man, revealed that the idea for the rainbow filter came from two interns, Austin Freel and Scott Buckfelder.

“We built this tool for exactly one reason: to give people a quick way to join us in celebrating Pride this past weekend,” wrote Schultz in a Facebook post that also addressed suspicions that the filter was a user experiment.

“It only took two days, and it was an awesome coincidence that it was ready the same day the US Supreme Court legalised marriage equality,” Schultz said. “It really was a totally incredible coincidence that was really emotional for me because Prop 8 was the issue that made me finally come out, permanently, at work and I was glad to play a small role in helping the team get it live.”

Celebrities who switched to a rainbow-filtered photo included Leonardo DiCaprio, Anne Hathaway and Arnold Schwarzenegger. When one user posted his disapproval of Schwarzenegger’s photo and said he had to click ‘unlike’, the Terminator simply said, “Hasta la vista.”