Facebook has refused to cave in to demands by Christian evangelicals to create a cross “reaction” emoji.

Campaigners are particularly incensed at the lack of a Christ-related miniature symbol after a Pride flag was added to the social media giant's pictorial lexicon last month.

Facebook introduced the rainbow-coloured reaction emoji to mark LGBT Pride month on 9 June and “celebrate love and diversity”.

But on 24 June, Hikmat Hanna posted an image asking for a cross reaction emoji as well, which was then shared by evangelist Joshua Feuerstein to his two million followers.

The post has now been shared over 9,000 times and gathered over 28,000 “reactions” - including over 3,000 rainbow flags.