A new anti-LGBTQ emoji is popping up on social media.
You may have noticed in the past few days that homophobes and LGBTQ people alike are using a new emoji. The emoji shows a typical pride flag, but it then has a strikethrough symbol layered on top.
The emoji is not an official one, but it has popped up on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. Though, it can only be seen on mobile apps. Whereas, laptop/desktop users see a pride flag with a strikethrough next to it and not on top.
On Twitter, as with most things on that social media platform, there has been a split in discussion and usage of the emoji. Some are alarmed by the emoji’s very existence while others, including LGBTQ people, are using the emoji to make jokes.
Later, one twitter user named Mitchell confessed to being the first to tweet the emoji on Monday evening. The user says he found the flaw in Apple’s code a month ago. According to Out, the user combined two Unicode blocks to make the single emoji.
Mitchell then expressed joy at seeing LGBTQ people using the emoji ironically, but worried about its use by homophobes.
Unfortunately, his fears could easily become reality as the emoji has spread to Facebook and Instagram.
So far, Apple has yet to comment on this development.
People get this is just…
People get this is just… how Unicode works, right? You can do this with literally any emoji — any character, in fact. There's no new emoji, just a combination of two existing symbols. Unicode includes a whole range of what are called "combining marks", and combining marks… well… combine. They have a negative left margin width, so when typed as a character they'll be overlaid on top of the previous glyph.
There's no "flaw" in Apple's or anyone else's "code" other than the fact that they correctly implemented Unicode. U+20E0 COMBINING ENCLOSING CIRCLE BACKSLASH does just what it says on the tin. That unfortunately includes allowing people to type hate speech in emoji form, the same way they can express hate with regular words.
There is also an emoji out
There is also an emoji out there that looks very much like the Nazi or white supremacist "OK" hand gesture. Kind of looks like a bunny rabbit (lol). Next time your in the "hand gestures" section of your emoji's look for it. Make quite a stir when various military or police officers were photographed flashing what appeared to be this low key salute.