EMOJI ORIGIN TALE: WHERE DO EMOJIS COME FROM?
There’s a lot of sushi on
the emoji keyboard, and more meals in a bowl than most people need. And that’s
not an accident.
The emoji was born in
Japan. It is now administered by the Unicode Consortium (UC), a US-based
not-for-profit network started by software engineers Joe Becker, Mark Davis and
Lee Collins.
Unicode is an open-source
initiative that essentially works with platforms like Google and Microsoft to
ensure that languages look similar across websites, browsers and devices. They
began working with emojis in 2010, uniformalising and expanding the little
pictorial dictionary. Amid calls to make it more inclusive, there are now more
races represented, and more cultures and cuisines.
THE
PROCESS
Anyone can propose an
emoji. Many of the new types of emojis have, in fact, been a response to public
demand. The most notable was when Unicode added the option, in 2015, of picking
between skin shades for its various hand and face symbols.
Actual emojis introduced
on request include breastfeeding woman, mosquito (lobbied for by Johns Hopkins
and the Gates foundation) and paella.
So how does one go about
putting in such a request? You start by drafting a proposal online, on
unicode.org, with a note on the proposed character, and samples of what the
proposed emoji could look like.
The criteria for approval
are compatibility (whether it’s already being widely used as an icon or image
on platforms like Snapchat and Twitter), expected usage level (it shouldn’t be
too niche), distinctiveness, completeness (it should fill a gap in current set
of emojis), and how often the proposed emoji has been requested or searched
for.
The consortium decides
which emojis to add, through a poll of it subcommittee members. Any individual
can be on the subcommittee, for an annual fee of $75 ($35 for students). The UC
subcommittee must reach a consensus on all proposals.
Once every three months,
all proposals that make it past the first level go to the UC’s full voting
members. There are currently 12 such members — including Netflix, Google,
Adobe, Apple, and Facebook; any company or organisation can become.
THE
CHALLENGES
Given the politics
involved in trying to represent the world through a limited set of icons, emoji
activism has become a fulltime affair.
There are activists
campaigning for greater diversity; healthier food; equal representation (the
bunny-eared woman was given a friend to dance with; and has been counterbalanced
by dancing bunnyeared men) and peace over violence (which turned the gun emoji
into a water pistol).
One such activist is
Jennifer 8 Lee, founder of EmojiNation, who became a Unicode subcommittee
member in 2015 and is now vice-chair of the subcommittee.
“I wanted to move the
needle by being a part of the system,” she says. It was Lee who proposed the
dumpling emoji, which was added last year. Similarly, emoji activist Rayouf
Alhumedhi, a student from Berlin, successfully campaigned for a headscarf
emoji, also rolled out in 2017.
Emojis approved this year
include a mango, tuk-tuk, diya, peacock and teddy bear. Got more in mind? Now
you know what to do. such a member for an annual fee of $18,000.
Once approved, they are
forwarded to the technical committee, for eventual design and rollout. Each new
emoji is posted on the Unicode website for public feedback. A final batch of
new emojis is released each June.
In 2017, 56 new emojis
were added, along with 183 emojis sequences for gender, skin tone and flags
variations.
Interestingly, likenesses
of people (living, dead or fictional), deities and business logos are banned in
the emoji world. Santa Claus is the only exception.
Once the new emojis are
launched, it is up to the vendors [Apple, Facebook etc] to choose which ones
they want to support on their operating systems.
The Unicode Consortium (UC), a not-for-profit network, is responsible for most of the emojis we use today. Since it is an open-source platform, anyone can propose an emoji, by filling out a form on the website unicode.org, with samples of the proposed icon.
An
emoji cannot be too visually complex, too niche, or too similar to what’s
already in the set.
A UC
subcommittee votes on all proposed emojis. Anyone can be a member of this
committee for a small annual fee.
The
proposals that pass this first test go before a panel of ‘full voting members’.
These
members currently include Netflix, Google, Adobe, Apple, Facebook and seven
other companies.
Any
company or organisation can become a full voting member for an annual fee of
$18,000. A batch of new emojis is released each June.
EGGPLANT
The bulbous, purple
eggplant was added to the Unicode emoji set in 2011, and soon became code for
the penis. In 2015, it was banned by Instagram for a while for violating its
policy against sexual content. Hashtags like #eggplantFridays were being used
to push nude images.
GUN
The original was a
standard pistol. In 2016, amid anti-gun activism in the US, and mass shootings,
Apple redesigned the emoji as a colourful squirt gun. Google, Facebook, Samsung
and Twitter did too. Microsoft’s gun too looks like a water pistol now. Some
still want the symbol banned.
LOBSTER
When Emojipedia
published a preview of their lobster emoji, some people were horrified. A
lobster has 10 legs, and this creature only 8, they cried. And so the emoji was
redesigned.
DANCING WOMEN WITH BUNNY
EARS
The original was meant
to be a Playboy Playmate. Women’s rights activists protested, so the solo woman
turned into two partygoing pals. They got so popular that men wanted one too.
We now have Two Dancing Women and Two Dancing Men With Bunny Ears.
PEACH
The peach emoji for iOS
also represents a well-sculpted butt. Some users even call it ‘the Kim butt’,
after the voluptuous Kardashian. Apple’s 2016 update showed more fruit and no
butt, but so upset users that a subsequent update returned the emoji to its
former glory. SALAD The original salad emoji was lettuce, tomatoes and eggs.
Vegans and vegetarians felt slighted because they ate more salad, but not eggs.
So in June 2018, Google decided to remove the egg from its salad emoji to make
it more inclusive. The bowl is now lettuce, tomatoes and cucumber: wholesome
and 100% vegan.
MIDDLE FINGER
When Apple released a
set of new emojis in 2015, it included the middle finger. Other than the fact
that it doesn’t represent the rest of the hand accurately, in India, it ran
afoul of protestors too. In December 2017, an Indian advocate sent a legal
notice to WhatsApp calling the emoji lewd and obscene and demanding that it be
removed. WhatsApp is yet to respond.
AERIAL TRAM
This is consistently the
least-used emoji. But a Facebook group dedicated to transportation memes
protested its removal. They urged the public to tweet the emoji from time to
time — and now it’s the second-least popular emoji.
This
year’s approved emojis include a mango, tuk tuk, diya, peacock and teddy bear.
Jayati Bhola
jayati.bhola@hindustantimes.com
HT24SEP18
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