
Surveying the Law of Emojis - alizauf
https://poseidon01.ssrn.com/delivery.php?ID=467087112103026095088075025014103081113017041087020051010016077024099091122103106089004033055004033104044081105002004113089069062033006049092010071121082024085026003066018120018082029116079016122122080065095005125127000066107124030100080111095081097&EXT=pdf
======
ballenf
Apple changed their gun emoji into a toy / water gun while others retained a
realistic gun. An innocent message could become a criminal threat under the
right circumstances. At least, it could be misinterpreted as a criminal
threat, effectively shifting the burden to the sender to show that they meant
"I am going to shoot you in the face with a water gun" instead of "I am going
to blow your head off", Mr. Elected Official.

On the other hand, language has always been subject to wide-ranging
interpretation so this isn't really new territory at all. We have countless
examples of words or phrases that take on very different meanings in different
parts of the world, or even country.

------
cJ0th
> Historically, most online communications have emphasized text, and emojis
> add much-needed emotional content to text-driven communications— _and often
> help people express themselves more precisely._

Au contraire ... it's more like "Here are a bunch of emojis so you can
interpret my message any way you want but if later it should turn out that I
disagree with your interpretation, it's your fault!"

~~~
TazeTSchnitzel
Well, they fill in for body language, and not everyone's great at reading that
in real life either.

------
zoom6628
Only in America could a line of thought possibly arise to consider emoji in
legal opinion.

I dont doubt the validity of the research and given how the global population
is infected with the 'look at me' virus of glass jabbing, and using childish
icons instead of saying/writing what they think/feel, one does have to think
about how emoji will infect and undermine certain types of documents.

Should congress vote using emojis? Will UN decide on severity on response to
world events based on emoji divergence stats from its members posts?

Disclaimer: when im lazy i use emoji too. Can be much quicker to find than the
words when Im not wearing my glass. Apart from that i find them silly. Mostly.

~~~
siegel
There's an extent to which the proliferation of emojis reflects people's
inability or unwillingness to put in the effort of using words to express
things, as you state. But the written expression is vital from a legal
perspective.

For example, contracts are a necessary part of our economic system. And there
is an importance (and often a necessity) for contracts to be in writing. As
people begin more and more to rely on emojis to express ideas, in lieu of
words, there is no reason to believe that we are far away from emojis making
their way into contracts.

So, as absurd as it may seem right now to give such deference to emojis as to
write legal articles about this, perhaps it's really necessary...

~~~
derefr
I would put less strength into the belief that there will be emojis in
contracts, and more into the belief that there will be emojis in text entered
into evidence in criminal cases, which must be interpreted for their intent to
gauge _mens rea_ or what-have-you.

~~~
bdowling
There may not be emojis in formal contract documents, but an offer sent by a
text message followed by a reply of the thumbs up emoji could be viewed as
acceptance and legally bind both parties to the deal.

~~~
siegel
Why wouldn't it, unless there were something categorical about emojis that
would legally be deemed to not be able to give rise to binding acceptance?

------
Iv
> Everyone loves emojis!

Objection!

~~~
petepete
At this point I would respond with "Overruled!" followed by the judge emoji,
but HN isn't cool enough to support emoji so I'd need to provide a paragraph
of explanation, thus obscuring any element of humour.

~~~
bitwize
What we really need is a Phoenix Wright emoji.

~~~
petepete
Someone's on it

[http://lapithyst.deviantart.com/art/emoji-
request-D2-Phoenix...](http://lapithyst.deviantart.com/art/emoji-
request-D2-Phoenix-Wright-560051826)

------
metaphor
>> Third, emojis create some issues for judicial operations, including if and
how judges will display emojis in their opinions...

Seriously?

~~~
mratzloff
One would assume this is in reference to legal decisions involving emoji, not
inserting the gavel and joy emoji in decisions for fun. A murder case where
the defendant sent the gun and skull emoji to the victim prior to the time of
death, for example.

~~~
metaphor
I didn't come to the same conclusion. The remark as written states "if and how
judges _display_ emojis in their opinions", as opposed to the manner in which
emojis convey information and how that may be interpretted. This appears to be
in the context of one vendor's emoji differing from another's in subtle yet
distinct ways. To be honest, the only assumption I made was that they would be
handled precisely as you've exemplified...

>> A murder case where the defendant sent the gun and skull emoji to the
victim prior to the time of death, for example.

...in a descriptive manner. To be sure, IANAL, but legal opinion doesn't
exactly have a reputation of being short winded, if you will.

------
stanislavb
Thanks for sharing this paper. I recently released a side-project related to
emojis and was wandering what could be the legal implications if it become
popular one day .

p.s. shameless plug [http://emojihomepage.com](http://emojihomepage.com)

------
glubGlub
This is about the handgun/watergun emoji, isn't it?

~~~
TazeTSchnitzel
It might end up being so.

That change by Apple and Microsoft is just begging for a criminal case
misinterpretation :(

