In the 1990s, the emoji was created by Shigetaka Kurita in Japan. Its name is from the Japanese words e (“picture”) and moji (“character”). So “emoji” means “picture character.” They look something like 😊, 😆, and 😂. Emoji should not be confused with emoticons, which are symbols used to represent emotion. Emoticons look like :-) and :-D and :’-D.The emoji was virtually unknown outside of Japan until Apple added it to the first iPhone in 2007. Apple wanted to use it to attract Japanese customers, but it became a hit among the company’s non-Japanese customers. New emoji are released every year, and their creation is overseen by the Unicode Consortium to ensure they are similar across all devices. For something this popular, it is not a surprise that they have generated their fair share of controversy.
1..Apple’s Yellow Face Emoji
Apple found itself in the middle of a controversy after it released the Mac OS X Yosemite. The target of the controversy was the yellow face emoji that came with the new operating system. Prior to this, Apple allowed users to select between different skin colors for its human emoji. However, the new OS included a yellow skin color—which many assumed was for Asians—to the mix. Opinions differed on Twitter and Weibo, China’s equivalent of Twitter. Some users supported the yellow face emoji because Asians could now use it in place of the white face emoji. Others complained that the yellow emoji was too yellow for an Asian and was nothing short of racism. Someone on Weibo even mentioned that the color made the faces look like they were suffering from jaundice. Now here was the problem. Apple never released the yellow face emoji for Asians. The yellow face emoji is supposed to replace the white emoji as the default emoji. When long pressed, it will reveal several skin colors, including white, for the user to select from. Apple chose yellow because it is the color of the popular yellow face smiley emoji.[1]
2 The Eggplant Emoji
The eggplant emoji is supposed to represent an innocent vegetable, but it’s mainly used in place of the penis. The emoji took its new role immediately after its release in 2010. In fact, the word “eggplant” has become a synonym for “penis.” Durex uses the emoji to advertise its condoms, and one company has created a vibrator that looks like an eggplant emoji. The emoji became the center of a controversy in 2015 after it was banned on Instagram along with hashtags like #eggplant and #EggplantFriday. The whole thing started in 2014 when male Instagram users started uploading questionable pictures of their “eggplants” with the eggplant emoji and #EggplantFriday hashtag.[2] Instagram banned the hashtag because it violated its policy against nudity and sexual content. Users protested the ban with the #FreetheEggplant hashtag, but it was no use. On a side note, the eggplant did not become the go-to emoji for the male organ overnight. The banana and cucumber emoji used to be alternatives, but they just weren’t good enough.
3.The Frowning Poop Emoji
We should be familiar with the smiling poop emoji. Well! That emoji almost got a partner—a frowning partner. However, the idea was dumped after a controversy. Apparently, no one wanted a pile of poop frowning at them.The frowning poop emoji was proposed in August 2017, 10 years after the creation of its smiling partner. The Unicode Consortium asked its members what they thought about the proposed emoji, and some thought it was just too uncool. Typographers Michael Everson and Andrew West were very vocal against the creation of the emoji.Smiling poop was manageable, but frowning poop? Absolutely not! They believe the creation of the frowning poop emoji will lead to the creation of more poop emoji. The viral opposition to the frowning poop emoji later led to its abandonment. Had it been approved, it would have been released with a group of emoji set for release in 2018.[3]We still might see the poop emoji sometime in the future. While it is no longer a stand-alone emoji, it has been proposed for use as part of an emoji sequence. That is, it might be combined with another emoji to create a new emoji. Just think of how the plate emoji was combined with the cutlery emoji. Makes us wonder what the frowning poop emoji will be combined with.
4.Apple’s Gorilla And Clown Emoji
A gorilla and a clown emoji stirred controversy after they were included as part of 72 new emoji in an iOS update in 2016. It was not that the emoji were bad. They were just the unfortunate victims of poor timing. The gorilla reminded people of Harambe, a male gorilla that was shot and killed at Cincinnati Zoo in May 2016 after the animal dragged a four-year-old boy who fell into his enclosure. Public reaction to the shooting was so intense that the zoo deleted its social media pages.[7]The clown emoji was released in the midst of the 2016 crown craze when people dressed as clowns appeared to random people in the streets in several countries. Someone even accused Apple of orchestrating the crown craze just to advertise its upcoming clown emoji
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