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Emoji Are Showing Up in Court Cases Exponentially, and Courts Aren't Prepared (theverge.com)
An anonymous reader shares a report: Bay Area prosecutors were trying to prove that a man arrested during a prostitution sting was guilty of pimping charges, and among the evidence was a series of Instagram DMs (direct messages) he'd allegedly sent to a woman. One read: "Teamwork make the dream work" with high heels and money bag emoji placed at the end. Prosecutors said the message implied a working relationship between the two of them. The defendant said it could mean he was trying to strike up a romantic relationship. Who was right?
Emoji are showing up as evidence in court more frequently with each passing year. Between 2004 and 2019, there was an exponential rise in emoji and emoticon references in US court opinions, with over 30 percent of all cases appearing in 2018, according to Santa Clara University law professor Eric Goldman, who has been tracking all of the references to "emoji" and "emoticon" that show up in US court opinions. So far, the emoji and emoticons have rarely been important enough to sway the direction of a case, but as they become more common, the ambiguity in how emoji are displayed and what we interpret emoji to mean could become a larger issue for courts to contend with.
Emoji are showing up as evidence in court more frequently with each passing year. Between 2004 and 2019, there was an exponential rise in emoji and emoticon references in US court opinions, with over 30 percent of all cases appearing in 2018, according to Santa Clara University law professor Eric Goldman, who has been tracking all of the references to "emoji" and "emoticon" that show up in US court opinions. So far, the emoji and emoticons have rarely been important enough to sway the direction of a case, but as they become more common, the ambiguity in how emoji are displayed and what we interpret emoji to mean could become a larger issue for courts to contend with.
This week I had to create an account on an US government website to process some forms. I was surprised to see that as a part of the password recommendations they said that you could use emojis. This was the first time that I have encountered such a clause and it was doubly surprising that it was on a US government website.
I stuck to a regular plain old string of random characters and digits, but I could see how people who think in emoji could prefer an emoji password.
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I think the problem is that emojis are even more ambiguous because the images may be very context sensitive. The High Heals and Dollar signs. Is that asking for money for shoes, asking someone to dress up and bring some extra cash, or a sign for prostitution.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
No, the hieroglyphs were a form of direct language. The Emoji is actually more like a form of punctuation. If you look at President Lincoln's hand written speeches, he notated them with little pictures, letting him know when to look at the audience and where. How to inflect his voice, and what emotions to show.
Much of this informal communication was lost when we moved over to typed documents, this was due to a limited number characters available for a type writer, and printing presses, then to limited the character set in computers to 8 bits or less, due to expense and technical limitations (large and overly complex keyboard).
Now with modern technology with 64bit microprocessors, Gigs of RAM, and video that handles 32bit color at an insane resolution in nearly everyone's pockets. And with a gesture based interface, that doesn't require a physical keyboard. The Emoji is back into our language in a new form.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.