Stockholm Pride asks: 'how hetero' is your Facebook?

Facebook users can now check to see "how hetero" the pictures they have posted on the popular social networking site are, thanks to a new web application launched by the organizers of an annual celebration of gay culture in Stockholm.

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“No one has done anything like this before,” said Stockholm Pride spokesperson Jessica W. Sandberg in a statement.

“To discuss how we see images in relation to the hetero norm is one way to elevate the debate about the unwritten rules regarding sexuality and gender.”

The Facebook application is the third installment of Stockholm Pride’s “How Hetero” campaign, which began last summer with a similar application reviewing the accounts of Twitter users to show how strongly language is connected to the norms about sexuality.

The Twitter “How Hetero” application took the internet by storm, becoming the world’s most tweeted link for two days straight and attracting 500,000 visitors, according to Stockholm Pride.

The success of the Twitter application prompted Stockholm Pride and the Åkestam Holst advertising agency, which helped create the campaign, to launch a second installment which allowed subscribers to the Spotify online music service to “hetero-test” their play lists.

Now the organizers have extended the campaign to the popular social networking site Facebook.

“‘How Hetero’ has people reacting all over the world. We succeeded in taking a social issue and mixing it with interactive entertainment to shine a light on the problems with the heteronorm", said Åkestam Holst senior account director Fredrik Widén in a statement.

Stockholm Pride president Claes Nyberg said he sees the “How Hetero” campaign as a “fun and interactive way to put Stockholm Pride on the world map” and boost the profile of the Swedish capital as festival arrangers look to submit their bid to host the World Pride festival in 2014.