Alleged Anti-LGBT Emoji Causes Viral Uncertainty

Not a week goes by without some scandal, or wannabe scandal, going viral. But the latest Twitter uproar this time didn’t originate from Trump’s antics – although that wouldn’t have been far-fetched. Since February 18, the bone of contention was a purportedly new emoji that depicted the rainbow flag of the LGBT community with a superimposed crossed-out circle, quasi declaring it unwanted – but only in the iPhone view. On the desktop, the circle is displayed behind the flag. The supposed discoverer then thought it was a brilliant idea to feed this “scandal” to the American LGBT magazine Out, so it wouldn’t fall into the wrong hands. Well, one must become famous somehow.

Code Glitch Instead of Discrimination

Although it became pretty clear quite quickly that this wasn’t an official Apple emoji but rather a glitch in the form of a Unicode phenomenon, the supposedly discriminatory emoji quickly made its rounds on Twitter. While many users incredulously and dismayedly wondered if they were being beamed back two decades in a time warp, there were also many in the LGBT community who took the issue with humor and continued to playfully elaborate on it.

In its reporting on the anti-emoji, the Out magazine also refers to the much-vaunted resilience of the LGBT community. However, the extent of this viral hit in some places suggests a certain thin-skinnedness – apparently, many representatives of this community still don’t feel fully accepted by society.

Just a digital Beard

Or was the “scandal” rather a premature summer slump phenomenon because there was no other outrage circulating in the social web at that moment? The fact that the Unicode phenomenon with the “no entry” coincidentally went viral now and in combination with the rainbow flag does seem somewhat peculiar. After all, the phenomenon as such was already mentioned in a Fun Emoji Hacks collection by Emojipedia, the online emoji reference, in 2016. There, it’s also explained how the negating code comes about and illustrated vividly with examples like “no chocolate,” “no babies,” “no fun.” So, neither new nor anti-LGBT – which Emojipedia clarifies via Twitter the following day.

Worst-Case Scenario

But well, if someone wants to get upset, they will get upset. It’s fortunate that this phenomenon spread around the world at the expense of the peace-loving LGBT movement. Just imagine if someone had thought to detonate this “bomb” with the turban or headscarf emoji. Or with the still-young redhead, beer glass, or raw meat emoji! The internet might not have been able to handle that much uproar at the moment.