“Wait, does that mean they’re crying or laughing?” “Why did he send me an alligator?” “What does the eggplant mean?”
I’m referring to emojis, of course. You love to hate them, but you know you use them too.
We mostly think of emojis as harmless fun or a shortcut for all that dang typing on a smartphone screen. But it’s also important to remember that an emoji’s meaning is in the eye of the receiver. And while the Unicode Consortium maintains the master list of emojis and their meanings, these emojis may look different on an Apple iPhone compared to a Samsung Galaxy. These misinterpretations are starting to cause confusion in courtrooms across the U.S.
According to Santa Clara University law professor Eric Goldman, who tracks these things, the number of cases across the United States that rely on emojis as evidence is steadily increasing.
The most common cases that see emoji evidence popping up are criminal defense and employment law cases. Did someone send the gun emoji to a person to signify they were going to do them harm? What if they also included a smiley face? Did a boss have ulterior motives when they sent a heart emoji to an employee?
Click here for the rest of the story: https://blogs.findlaw.com/legally_weird/2019/07/emojis-in-court-cases-leave-many-lost-in-translation.html?
Other interesting emojis in court articles:
Court Quotes Poop Emoji, Upholds $17K Sanction – https://blogs.findlaw.com/seventh_circuit/2018/08/court-quotes-poop-emoji-upholds-17k-sanction.html
Should I Use Emojis in Court? – https://blogs.findlaw.com/strategist/2017/10/should-i-use-emojis-in-court.html
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