Who would’ve thought emojis could prove so controversial?
Following on from the yellow skin color accusations and Russian LGBT emojis attempted banning, the nonprofit group New Yorkers Against Gun Violence (NYAGV) has launched a new hashtag entitled #DisarmTheiPhone — calling for Apple to “remove the gun emoji [from iOS] and take a stand for stricter gun accessibility in America.”
Check out a video for the campaign below:
NYAGV executive director Leah Barrett explains, “The iPhone is ubiquitous. [Guns are] on the iPhone as an option. We thought this was a way to bring attention to the issue [of gun violence].”
Apple didn’t create the gun emoji itself, although it has the choice of whether or not to add it to the list of possible emojis included on iOS. Microsoft has previously avoided the controversy by opting to include a toy gun depiction instead of a “real” one.
Apple’s played it on the conservative side before when it comes to banning what it considers to be offensive, but it remains to be seen whether they’ll succumb to Twitter pressure here. My guess would be that — like the Taylor Swift open letter about Apple’s payment of royalties during the three-month Apple Music free trial — it’ll depend on how much this blows up on social media.
I wonder if Sony’s starting to second-guess that seemingly safe emoji movie it recently shelled out for?
Source: FastCoDesign
Luke Dormehl is a U.K.-based journalist and author, with a background working in documentary film for Channel 4 and the BBC. He is the author of The Apple Revolution and The Formula: How Algorithms Solve All Our Problems … and Create More, both published by Penguin/Random House. His tech writing has also appeared in Wired, Fast Company, Techmeme and other publications.
21 responses to “Activists want Apple to kill gun emoji”
If Apple does, I may consider dropping the platform. That’s ridiculous.
That would suck. Aside from Linux (its many variants), there aren’t any other great platforms out there. Apple is allowing itself to get too politically correct. They can’t please everyone. They should instead seek to please the majority of their users instead of a tiny, microscopic minority.
Cause all guns are are bad, mmmkay.
The link “banning what it considers to be offensive” links to a Cult of Mac article which, in turn, discusses an article at Daring Fireball about the Ninjawords (Wiktionary) app being rejected by the App Store, but the linked DF article includes an update where Phil Schiller clarifies the situation. Apple didn’t ask them to edit the dictionary, the developers self-censored their app the meet their launch date instead of waiting for parental controls. That’s not to say that Apple doesn’t occasionally reject apps unfairly, only that the linked app is probably not the best example.
Having homosexual emojis is a “right” but gun ownership is not? This is ridiculous. Get your head Out of your rear end.
This is ridiculous. Yes, gun violence is becoming a major issue in the US. But removing an EMOJI because of it is way too far b
Typical liberals telling us how to live our lives
Dear God, will these idiots stop this kind of useless banter? If they really cared about gun violence, they would call for a ban on games like GTA that depict, murder, rape, sex, drugs, violence, and crime? Get a life people.
Social Justice Warriors are really stupid… they focus on jokes and symbols than actual justice issues… its like a modern christian right in the 90s that wanted to censor everything but now it’s over sensitive liberals who never dealt with these issues in the first place like what Jerry Seinfeld said “these people don’t know what racism is”
NYAGV can go ***k themselves with the barrel end of the emoji gun and pull the trigger…PLEASE do us all a favor and end your miserable lives!
Guns don’t kill emojis. People do.
Oh good grief. The world is indeed bonkers.
This made me angry enough to get an account just to comment.
I’m going to start a charity that raises money to provide industrial lubricant free of charge to people who struggle to take the pole out of their own ass. I’m going to call it the ” stop being a pain in the fucking ass foundation.”
Honestly guns have been part of american history since the founding of our nation. Please stop trying to disarm law abiding citizens who participate in gun ownership. Laws only affect the people that follow them… guess what criminals are not in that demographic.
I’m totally with you Artbytar & Adaily-reader, I could not have said it better…
I love the little gun emoji. Will be using it a lot. Please give us an NRA emoji next.
I have a god-given second amendment right to a gun emoji.
In response to this apple should release a whole host of different types of gun emojis just to piss off the overly PC gun activist
This might end the violence in Baltimore. Without gun emojis they can’t shoot each other.
I’m all for sensible gun legislation like closing the background check loophole and as liberal as it gets on most issues, but this type of liberal activist only exist on this planet to make everyone hate them. And yes, it’s literally because they don’t have anything better to do and no one else will hang out with them.
On the other hand, there are those that have become so attached to their gun emoji in the six or so months that it’s been available that they’d switch platforms if they were deprived of it’s warm cuddly embrace. If you feel that naked without your gun emoji, there are probably other contributing factors. Just saying.
There is NO background check loophole…where do people get this???
I’m really sick of “activists” always getting their way. Just because something offends you, it does not mean that you have a right to wipe it from existence. If it did, I’ve got a huge list of things I want gone. Suck it up. Live with it and move on.
So we are not dumb enough!!
And this is why I hate New York