No, there is not a new anti-LGBT flag emoji
Twitter descended into a furor after discovering an emoji that supposedly showed a rainbow flag with a crossed-out circle over it.
However, this emoji does not exist.
The talk began yesterday when one user tweeted the image,Β according to Fast Company.
π³οΈβπβ
— mitchell (Discovered π³οΈβπβ ) (@mioog) February 19, 2019
On iPhones, the tweet showed the crossed-out circle on the LGBT flag emoji.
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This is a bit of text trickery. The crossed-out circle is aΒ special character that covers the previous letter or emoji. If you copy and paste it, the circle covers any previous character, not just the rainbow flag emoji.
Jeremy Burge, who lists his title on Twitter as βchief emoji officerβ for Emojipedia, set the record straight, saying,Β βit's literally how that character works in combo with any emoji or character.β
π
— Jeremy Burge π₯π§Ώ (@jeremyburge) February 20, 2019
- not a glitch
- it's literally how that character works in combo with any emoji or character
- if covering this, at least pick a helpful angle: "people have been duped into *thinking* there is a so-called 'anti-lgbt' emoji but there is not" pic.twitter.com/OIIlDStbFL
Burge pointed out that in situations like this, it can be hard to differentiate which Twitter users have been genuinely fooled and which ones are pretending to be fooled as a joke. See for yourself:
Homophobes and homosexuals when they discovered the π³οΈβπβ emoji pic.twitter.com/wsSb9A0mCB
— π²πππππ π°ππππππ πππππππππ£π (@solracodnamra98) February 19, 2019
gays obsessed w the π³οΈβπβ emoji pic.twitter.com/LgswcV01UR
— Worst Bastard Everβπ¦ (@ComradeMinghao) February 19, 2019
me online: π³οΈβππ³οΈβππ³οΈβπ
— Luisπ (@luisortiza13) February 19, 2019
me with my parents: π³οΈβπβ π³οΈβπβ π³οΈβπβ
π³οΈβπβ why is this emoji even a thing?! This just makes me so mad.....
— Skai Jackson β‘ (@skaijackson) February 19, 2019
loki and valkyrie: π³οΈβπ
— teja (@trivksterloki) February 20, 2019
the mcu: π³οΈβπβ
Everyone:
— Boston (@Esnystarlight) February 20, 2019
Republicans: π³οΈβπβ
The special character is part ofΒ Unicode, which is a standard set of characters computers use to handle text. The latest version contains more than 137,000 characters to handle languages from English to Arabic as well as emoji and symbols.
