Brunei hotels withdraw from social media amid anti-LGBT law backlash

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The social media accounts of Brunei-owned luxury hotels have been deleted or made inaccessible amid an ongoing backlash over anti-LGBT laws.

Brunei introduced strict Islamic laws this week that make gay sex punishable by flogging or stoning to death.

Celebrities including George Clooney are calling on the public to boycott Brunei-owned luxury hotels.

Now the social media accounts of these hotels have become inaccessible following criticism online.

Which hotels are owned by Brunei?

The social backlash appears to have escalated after US talk show host Ellen DeGeneres shared a Twitter post naming the nine Brunei-owned hotels to boycott.

These nine hotels have now become inaccessible across social media, though not all the accounts have been deleted.

Eight of the hotels have been deleted or deactivated on Twitter, with just Hotel Principle de Savoia “protected” – it is still present on the website, but the tweets cannot be viewed.

The Instagram accounts of all but three of the hotels have been deleted or deactivated, with Le Meurice, Hôtel Plaza Athénée and Hotel Eden switched to “private” to prevent the posts being viewed.

Finally, all hotels have been made inaccessible on Facebook, with attempts to view their pages presenting an error message.


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‘Personal abuse directed at employees’

Dorchester Collection, the company that manages the nine hotels, earlier updated its website to respond to the backlash, writing: “We do not tolerate any form of discrimination.”

The boycott has spread far and wide, with Virgin Australia ending a deal with Royal Brunei Airlines.

The criticism has continued online with comments remarking on hotel staff specifically, including one commenter who asked if the Dorchester’s gay staff members are “being scheduled for stoning”.

Such comments may have prompted Dorchester Collection to make their social media accounts inaccessible, as it cited “personal abuse directed at our employees” in its decision.

Review site stops submissions

The backlash against the hotel chain has continued elsewhere with TripAdvisor banning reviews for the hotels on its platform.

Its website has been updated to include a message announcing that the decision was “due to a recent event that has attracted media attention”.

“[It] has caused an influx of review submissions that do not describe a first-hand experience [and] we have temporarily suspended publishing new reviews for this listing.”

It is not clear whether similar restrictions have been made elsewhere, as yesterday criticism continued to appear on review website Yelp.

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Yelp

source: bbc.com