Emoji's Danger-Man Fined $61,000 Over an Emoji!!

A primitive language which was born of digital words- The Emoji Language, those little pictorial icons on our phones they punctuate our texts, memes and posts like smiley faces or praying hands or a high five, I'm sure you have used these. 92% Millennials used emojis in daily conversations and just in the past three years emojis have seen 775% rise in use. Like everywhere on all social media be it YouTube, Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook, Medium, Vocal etc etc. Like love is expressed with a heart emoji, mean jokes are masked by laughing emoji and in some cases, people are taken to court over a thumbs up. That's what happened in Canada.

The farmer had to pay a price and that too a heavy one at of more than $61000.

Here's the story.

The Farmer spoke to a buyer about a deal for the purchase of flax then the buyer sent him a contract via a text message, he asked the farmer for conformation the farmer responded with a thumbs-up emoji but he did not make the delivery so the buyer took him to the court and he was found guilty. It's the CLASSIC EMOJI MISCOMMUNICATION. The buyer assumed that the thumbs-up meant confirmation but the farmer was only confirming that he had received the message he did not give a go-ahead for the contract. But as they say, Justice is Blind even to emojis it seems. So now the farmer has to pay a fine of over $61000 it sounds a bit odd and the court agreed, they called it a non-traditional mean to sign a document but they also said that the thumbs up emoji by its very definition is used to describe agreement and in this case it can be interpreted as digital signature, the judge called this "The New Reality". But now let's face it this is not only limited to Canada more emojis are showing up in court cases throughout the world mostly in sexual harassment and criminal cases.

 In 2016 A French court convicted a man of threatening his ex-girlfriend Do you know what he had done? He sent her a GUN emoji and was sentenced to six months of prison and slabbed a $1200 fine.

In 2017 New Zealand saw a case of stalking a man who was sentenced to jail for eight months again because of an emoji!

In 2018 46 people were slabbed with criminal cases in India for replying to a woman's official message with an emoji, the case was later quashed by Madras High Court. 

In the USA and England, the cases are high. The icons frequently appear in criminal family and employment hearings so the trend is clear across the globe it's also up for debate. Now the attorneys have to stand in the court and argue the different interpretations on tiny guns and eggplants. Can a knife emoji mean a death threat? Does a heart emoji from a manager constitute sexual harassment? Emojis help us to be colourfully creative but also leave room for misinterpretation. For example- a thumbs-up emoji generally means agreement but some young people now use it sarcastically too and some barely use it, while in some West Asian Country, these gesture is offensive, so many meaning for one emoji and remember there are over 3000 EMOJIS! today.

 Also, different Devices display the same emojis differently For example- On Google phones, a grinning face has smiling eyes- a happy emoji but on Apple phones, it has a grimace almost like it's ready to fight. According to a study, 25% of emoji users are unaware of this difference in the context of law Though this is a big problem simple problem can be unforgiving and the legal world has begun to accept it. E.g.- Last year many lawyers in Britain urged the Judiciary they demand guidance on the interpretation of emojis now this may seem like the equivalent of sitting with the elderly and telling them that peach emoji does not mean what they think it does it will be award conversation for sure but it's important conversation to have because emoji's now appear in virtually every area of the law and courts must keep up as per the users throwing emoji's around like confetti may not be the best idea. The next time you look at one think before you PRESS.

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