Petition to ban Google from designing emoji

Rebecca T via Unicode unicode at unicode.org
Thu May 18 09:07:06 CDT 2017


Well, you’re certainly not alone in your distaste for the new design. @eevee
just today said “cool how we improved gender diversity by slowly changing
<https://twitter.com/eevee/status/865110401192648705>
from ‘ambiguous/neutral’ to ‘explicit color-coded binary, default usually
<https://twitter.com/eevee/status/865110401192648705>
male’” <https://twitter.com/eevee/status/865110401192648705>

On the other hand, quoting @zaccolley: “if you treat emoji like pictures:
<https://twitter.com/zaccolley/status/865114030771507200>
yay blobs, if you treat emoji like language: yay consistency”
<https://twitter.com/zaccolley/status/865114030771507200>

Ultimately, the new emoji designs will make our digital communication less
ambiguous — I’m just not sure if that’s a good change or not, and I
certainly don’t enjoy Apple being the default (on principle and for their
designs specifically).

Quoting UTR #51: “General-purpose emoji for people and body parts should
also not be given overly specific images: the general recommendation is to
be as neutral as possible regarding race, ethnicity, and gender.”

Unambiguously, Apple has failed to meet these technical guidelines,
in a blatant and unapologetic manner, and that’s why I liked the blobs —
they bucked norms, refused to conform to trends, and made emoji more
friendly to people who didn’t want to attach a gender to their every
expression. I think that’s valuable and I’m sad to see it go.

And a serious response to this joke letter: Given that Google pays $18,000 /
annum to vote on new emoji, it seems unlikely that the Consortium will just
kick them out.


On Thu, May 18, 2017 at 7:40 AM, zelpa via Unicode <unicode at unicode.org>
wrote:

> http://blog.emojipedia.org/rip-blobs-google-redesigns-emojis/
>
> Is this some kind of joke? Have Google put ANY thought into their emoji
> design? First they bastardise the cute blob emoji, then they make their
> emoji gendered, now they've literally just copied Apple's emoji. It's
> sickening. Disgusting. I propose we hold a petition for the Unicode
> Consortium to ban Google from designing emoji in the future, and make them
> revert back to the Android 5 designs. Everyone in favour of this please
> leave a response, anybody not in favour please rethink your opinion.
>
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