diff --git a/profiles/desktop/package.accept_keywords b/profiles/desktop/package.accept_keywords
index c8ee0382..96cc54a7 100644
--- a/profiles/desktop/package.accept_keywords
+++ b/profiles/desktop/package.accept_keywords
@@ -53,7 +53,6 @@ dev-libs/amdgpu-pro-opencl ~amd64
 =dev-libs/go-usb-9999 **
 =dev-libs/gobject-plugin-9999 **
 <dev-libs/ell-1 ~amd64
-<dev-libs/icu-71 ~amd64
 dev-libs/libclangformat-ide ~amd64
 dev-libs/libdispatch ~amd64
 dev-libs/libfilezilla ~amd64
diff --git a/profiles/desktop/package.mask b/profiles/desktop/package.mask
index f0e6c3d2..4d85f7a5 100644
--- a/profiles/desktop/package.mask
+++ b/profiles/desktop/package.mask
@@ -7,3 +7,4 @@
 =net-libs/libtorrent-rasterbar-1.2.15 # build fails
 =sys-power/powerstat-0.02.24 # checksum failed
 dev-lang/php:8.0 # brokes arcanist
+=dev-libs/icu-70.1-r1 # a lot of packages require icu-69
diff --git a/profiles/desktop/package.use b/profiles/desktop/package.use
index 0fccc8fc..fd2753f7 100644
--- a/profiles/desktop/package.use
+++ b/profiles/desktop/package.use
@@ -134,7 +134,7 @@ virtual/ffmpeg mp3 theora vaapi
 virtual/imagemagick-tools svg
 virtual/libgudev introspection
 virtual/mpi cxx
-www-client/firefox custom-optimization hwaccel system-harfbuzz system-jpeg system-libevent system-libvpx system-sqlite
+www-client/firefox custom-optimization hwaccel system-harfbuzz -system-icu system-jpeg system-libevent system-libvpx system-png system-sqlite
 x11-base/xorg-server elogind kdrive
 x11-drivers/nvidia-drivers kms uvm
 x11-drivers/xf86-video-intel dri3 uxa xvmc