Mobile By Russell Holly Jan. 18, 2014 10:01 am
The next time you swipe over to the emoji page on your smartphone keyboard, you may want to pay closer attention to the message you are sending. It may land you in court.
Whether they are text-based smileys or a full set of animated images, emoji have invaded our digital language and demanded permanent residence on our keyboards. They get used to add emotion to the flat black and white world of text-based conversations, and are often used to add color or amusement to an otherwise bland event. Some people stick to basic emoji, while others rely on the huge grinning faces you find on Facebook or the text-to-animation emoji found in Google Hangouts.
The chances are good that even if you personally avoid these flourishes you are exposed to them daily. Recently it has been decided that emoji are such an important part of expressing emotion and action that they can be treated as an actual threat when delivered in such a context.
Fletcher Babb is a freelance journalist who took it upon himself to learn more about the idea that Instagram could be used like a Black Market. He posed as a buyer for illegal substances, and broke the deal off at the last minute after he had confirmed that there were actually dealers operating through Instagram to complete transactions. His dealer didn’t appreciate Babb walking away from a transaction, and called Fletcher out publicly for walking away from the deal. Contained within that public message was a threat containing a gun emoji and a face with crossed out eyes. In context, and given the nature of the transaction, it’s not hard to see how that would be considered a direct threat even though it wasn’t made with words.
Babb claims to have reported the threat to Instagram, but the company did nothing in response to the report. The dealer’s account was deleted a week later, which according to Babb is a common practice when dealing drugs via Instagram.
As it turns out, emoji threats like this can be treated just like text threats, and you can’t just brush it off and claim it was a joke if the other person claims to legitimately feel threatened. Additionally, if these kinds of threatening emoji are combined with an actual physical altercation later on, those messages can be used to create a criminal case against someone. While there has yet to be a documented case of emoji used in a court ruling, all of the pieces are there now.
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Whether they are text-based smileys or a full set of animated images, emoji have invaded our digital language and demanded permanent residence on our keyboards. They get used to add emotion to the flat black and white world of text-based conversations, and are often used to add color or amusement to an otherwise bland event. Some people stick to basic emoji, while others rely on the huge grinning faces you find on Facebook or the text-to-animation emoji found in Google Hangouts.
The chances are good that even if you personally avoid these flourishes you are exposed to them daily. Recently it has been decided that emoji are such an important part of expressing emotion and action that they can be treated as an actual threat when delivered in such a context.
Fletcher Babb is a freelance journalist who took it upon himself to learn more about the idea that Instagram could be used like a Black Market. He posed as a buyer for illegal substances, and broke the deal off at the last minute after he had confirmed that there were actually dealers operating through Instagram to complete transactions. His dealer didn’t appreciate Babb walking away from a transaction, and called Fletcher out publicly for walking away from the deal. Contained within that public message was a threat containing a gun emoji and a face with crossed out eyes. In context, and given the nature of the transaction, it’s not hard to see how that would be considered a direct threat even though it wasn’t made with words.
Babb claims to have reported the threat to Instagram, but the company did nothing in response to the report. The dealer’s account was deleted a week later, which according to Babb is a common practice when dealing drugs via Instagram.
As it turns out, emoji threats like this can be treated just like text threats, and you can’t just brush it off and claim it was a joke if the other person claims to legitimately feel threatened. Additionally, if these kinds of threatening emoji are combined with an actual physical altercation later on, those messages can be used to create a criminal case against someone. While there has yet to be a documented case of emoji used in a court ruling, all of the pieces are there now.
More...
