UPDATED 22:12 EDT / NOVEMBER 02 2017

APPS

Toilets at dawn: Unicode Consortium argues over frowning poo emoji

Weeks after a farce that saw Google LLC stop using a cupcake emoji thanks to accusations by social justice warriors that its use constituted fat shaming, a new drama has emerged at the body that certifies emojis over a proposal to implement a “frowning poo emoji.”

The argument over the emoji is between developers working with the Emoji Subcommittee of the Unicode Consortium, the nonprofit corporation that develops, maintains and promotes software internationalization standards. The committee is currently considering implementing a number of new emojis next year, but the frowning poo emoji alone has caused some members to become rather upset.

According to documents obtained by Buzzfeed, objections have been made on the grounds that the proposed emoji is a poor choice. “Organic waste isn’t cute … It is bad enough that the [Emoji Subcommittee] came up with it, but it beggars belief that the [Unicode Technical Committee] actually approved it … The idea that our 5 committees would sanction further cute graphic characters based on this should embarrass absolutely everyone who votes yes on such an excrescence,” one person wrote. “Will we have a CRYING PILE OF POO next? PILE OF POO WITH TONGUE STICKING OUT? PILE OF POO WITH QUESTION MARKS FOR EYES? PILE OF POO WITH KARAOKE MIC?”

Another person wrote, “I’m concerned that this character will open the floodgates for an open-ended set of PILE OF POO emoji with emotions, such as CRYING PILE OF POO, PILE OF POO WITH LOOK OF TRIUMPH, PILE OF POO SCREAMING IN FEAR, etc. Is there really any need to add a range of emotions to PILE OF POO? I personally think that changing PILE OF POO to a de facto SMILING PILE OF POO was wrong, but adding F|FROWNING PILE OF POO as a counterpart is even worse. If this is accepted then there will be no neutral, expressionless PILE OF POO, so at least a PILE OF POO WITH NO FACE would be required to be encoded to restore some balance.”

Those opposed to poo emojis went further, blaming Apple Inc. and other companies who followed them for introducing the poo emoji to begin with. “It is a pity that Apple followed Softbank rather than KDDI in its reference glyph, since a coil of dog dirt with stink lines and flies is surely the only proper semantic,” one wrote in a memo. “This bloc is calling for increased scrutiny and transparency in the emoji-introduction process.”

It’s not clear where the numbers lie in terms of the poo emoji stink at the Unicode Consortium, but it would appear that those who can’t stomach the new emoji may be in the minority. In terms of the overall position, however, it’s a sad state of affairs where the body charged with setting standards is arguing over a steaming pile of poo.

Image: Unicode Consortium

A message from John Furrier, co-founder of SiliconANGLE:

Your vote of support is important to us and it helps us keep the content FREE.

One click below supports our mission to provide free, deep, and relevant content.  

Join our community on YouTube

Join the community that includes more than 15,000 #CubeAlumni experts, including Amazon.com CEO Andy Jassy, Dell Technologies founder and CEO Michael Dell, Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger, and many more luminaries and experts.

“TheCUBE is an important partner to the industry. You guys really are a part of our events and we really appreciate you coming and I know people appreciate the content you create as well” – Andy Jassy

THANK YOU