It’s hard enough defending Tim Cook as it is. And none of it has anything to do with guns, and acting as if removing a goddamn emoji will make any difference is just feckless. The mental illness that seizes a person consumed with racial hatred, is not the same as the anger and frustration that consumes a bullied high school student, or the viral ideology that radicalizes a religious zealot. One thing I know, it is that mass murder is not about the weapons themselves, but about individual killers and individual circumstances. It might be the silliest thing that Apple has ever done, next to the whole Confederate Flag nonsense.
It is the silliest thing that Apple could possibly have done. Thetheloniousmac: “This is beyond ridiculous. Perhaps Apple needs another company name change from Apple, Inc.
RIP: “Tim is just taking his SJW stance to make the online world safe from the evil gun, while happily reaping in the profits of Apple computer sales used by Hollywood writers who are busy typing away on their next movie script that glorifies assault weapons that bring about death and carnage by their favorite actor/actress (who then go to lecture us on gun violence) to amuse and desensitize the brain dead masses who are entertained by that pap! Either way, the world is not going to be coming to an end on this issue.” Anyone using the rifle emoji is not going to be thinking of the Olympic games. The Other Steve: “I’m going to agree with Apple on this one.
(There are only 12 full voting members, and they include Oracle, Facebook, Google, Apple, Oracle, IBM, and Yahoo.)Īpple’s role in blocking the rifle emoji sparked some passionate responses in a thread on the MacDaily News site: There’s even a recent proposal on the table in the consortium that would require the major emoji vendors, like Apple, Google, and Microsoft, to support the adoption and “wide deployment” of an emoji in order to make it an approved candidate - a move that would theoretically give more control to Unicode’s most influential members. For those wary of Big Tech’s outsize power, this is another troubling example. And Unicode, which includes Apple, Google, and Microsoft among its voting members, is in the precarious position of governing emoji’s evolution. Many inside Unicode disagree that emoji rises to the level of an emerging language, but there’s little debate that it has quickly become a meaningful, global form of expression and communication. While Unicode’s rifle debate is a far cry from any actual policy discussion, regulating emojis based on their potential controversy is further evidence of the broad, unexpected influence of tech’s biggest companies. “I heard Apple speak up about it and also Microsoft,” one member present at the discussions told BuzzFeed News. Apple told the consortium it would not support a rifle on its platforms and asked for it not to be made into an emoji.
Millions of people use emojis on Apple’s software platforms (earlier this year, the company announced it delivers as many as 200,000 messages per second across iMessage).Īccording to sources in the room, Apple started the discussion to remove the rifle emoji, which had already passed into the encoding process for the Unicode 9.0 release this June. …the rifle emoji was proposed to “represent shooting as a sport”, including hunting and marksmanship, according to a submission to Unicode, which is how new icons are added.Īnd a writer at BuzzFeed noted the powerful influence of companies like Apple in the process of adopting new emoji.Īpple is one of Unicode’s largest member companies and not only has voting rights, but also holds considerable influence. The pistol emoji will still be available, but Apple said it wouldn’t add the rifle to its services. But members of the Unicode Consortium, which is responsible for regulating emoji, voted unanimously to remove it in a move the body described as “bizarre and unusual”Īpple led the decision, according to BuzzFeed, and was supported by all 12 technology giants that are voting members of Unicode, including Facebook, Google and Microsoft.
The new emoji was due to join the keyboard line-up in an update this month. | Sign up for CIO newsletters.Īpple, Google, Facebook and Microsoft have joined forces to stop a rifle emoji from being added to the catalogue of images available to their users on their smartphones. Beware the 9 warning signs of bad IT architecture and see why these 10 old-school IT principles still rule.