The next emoji update is due soon – but two characters that were originally planned to roll out will be missing. According to the organization overseeing emoji, the “late stage” change in the number of new emoji may have had an unlikely source: Apple.
It seems that the tech giant used its influence with Unicode Consortium to prevent two new characters representing rifles from being on the roster of the upcoming Unicode 9.0 update.
BuzzFeed reports 74 emoji were slated to be introduced later this month, but two of them – a rifle and a “modern pentathlon” – were taken off the list. If you’re wondering why the symbols were even developed in the first place, it has to do with the upcoming Olympic Games.
This year, shotgun, rifle, and pistol shooting are all Olympic events, and pistol shooting will be included in the modern pentathlon. According to people familiar with the matter, Apple was the one to ask the removal of the two characters from the Unicode 9.0 update.
The request was made during a Unicode Consortium meeting in May, when Microsoft, who’s also a voting member, reportedly backed up Apple. However, it seems the decision to pull the two emoji was not a controversial one, anyway.
When Unicode confirmed the removal of the modern pentathlon rifle emoji last month, the organization did not elaborate why they were pulled out at such a “late stage” of the 9.0 update.
“These will not be recommended for emoji presentation by vendors when the final version of Unicode 9 is released next month,” is what the organization wrote in a blog post at the time.
Even though Apple has yet to comment on its objection to the emoji, there are some speculations; as BuzzFeed points out, the two emoji were already under harsh criticism from British gun control activists.
The Unicode Consortium is an independent organization, so technically, it could do whatever it wanted to. But because member companies like Apple, Microsoft, and Google are the ones implementing the characters on their platforms, they get to vote to approve the new ones.
Unicode’s 9.0 update will roll out June 21, and it will add 72 new emoji, such as bacon, avocado and selfie symbols.
Image Source: Local TV Witi
