Apple led effort to remove rifle emoji from Unicode 9.0, report says

AppleInsider · June 17, 2016 9:11PM

A proposed rifle emoji initially set for release as part of Unicode 9.0 was removed from consideration after Unicode Consortium delegates representing Apple and Microsoft expressed disapproval of its inclusion, a report said Friday.

While the decision to nix a rifle emoji from the upcoming standard was unanimous, sources who attended Unicode's quarterly May meeting said Apple led the charge to quash its inclusion, reports BuzzFeed News. Rifle emoji variants had already moved through the encoding process on their way to release this month, but Apple said it would not support their inclusion. Microsoft seconded Apple's contention.

Apple is not the first to take issue with the now dead firearm emoji. A UK gun control lobby protested the same issue after Unicode 9.0 candidates were announced last year, saying the inclusion of a rifle glyph is tantamount to familiarizing users with a weapon through an international standard. In response, Unicode President Mark Davis said the emoji was designed as part of a pack of Olympic sport graphics.

Interestingly, another Olympic emoji illustrating the modern pentathlon, which incorporates pistol shooting as a sanctioned event, was also removed from consideration.

As AppleInsider reported last week, the rifle character was original set to debut in Unicode 9.0 on June 21 when the standard officially launches on June 21.

As it stands, the rifle and modern pentathlon assets will be included in Unicode 9.0 as characters without corresponding emoji representations. In other words, Unicode is adding a monochrome rifle symbol to its database, but will not incorporate a glyph into the dataset used to create emoji keyboards.

macxpress · June 17, 2016 9:13PM

And this changes the world how??? It won't stop any violence. I guess I'm just not seeing the point of this. I know terrible things have happened recently, things that should have never happened and too many innocent people are getting killed but this isn't the answer IMO.

rogifan_new · June 17, 2016 9:15PM

So is Apple going to start removing games with violence from the App Store. Or iTunes media that contains violence?

Btw, the Orlando killer was investigated by the FBI 3 times. Why isn't that what everyone is focusing on? How the hell did the FBI let this guy go?

edited June 2016

baconstang · June 17, 2016 9:15PM

That'll save lives.
While they're at it, remove the pile of poo emoji, I'm tired of stepping in poop on the sidewalk.

lkrupp · June 17, 2016 9:22PM

Apparently guns are politically incorrect, but not the people who use those guns to kill other people. What a fucked up culture we have created where inanimate objects are the cause of hatred and violence, not the human beings making use of those inanimate objects.

edited June 2016

sy1492 · June 17, 2016 9:23PM

This is just plan ridiculous. Meanwhile, Apple, Google, etc have business dealings with countries who have punished gays in the past. If you want to do something, stand up to this at least.

mobius · June 17, 2016 9:29PM

But...there's already a handgun, a bomb, a knife and a sword...so what was Apple's response when they were proposed? Or perhaps they were introduced at a time when Apple did not wield the persuasive power it currently does.

rogifan_new · June 17, 2016 9:37PM

This is as bad as removin things from Apple's stores that referenced the confederate flag. Absolute nonsense. But that's the politically correct culture Tim Cook is breeding at Apple.

why- · June 17, 2016 9:44PM

funny. I seem to recall many users here stating that they couldn't care two ways about emojis. I agree that this move isn't entirely necessary, but I think you're all blowing it out of proportion

boopthesnoot · June 17, 2016 10:10PM

I'm glad to see that Apple takes guns and gun violence seriously. Civilians have no business using rifle emojis.

edited June 2016

mac_dog · June 17, 2016 10:16PM

rogifan_new said:

So is Apple going to start removing games with violence from the App Store. Or iTunes media that contains violence?

Btw, the Orlando killer was investigated by the FBI 3 times. Why isn't that what everyone is focusing on? How the hell did the FBI let this guy go?

They are. Try reading something else besides appleinsider.

butidonttweet · June 17, 2016 10:19PM

rogifan_new said:

This is as bad as removin things from Apple's stores that referenced the confederate flag. Absolute nonsense. But that's the politically correct culture Tim Cook is breeding at Apple.

If "politically correct" wasn't just the jerks way of whining that people expect you to act like a decent human being, I might care about your pathetic and mindless opinion.

Probably not though.

mattinoz · June 17, 2016 10:48PM

If the symbol is meant to be an Olympic thing why is Google's the only graphic that looks like the weapons used in the Olympics?

daven · June 17, 2016 10:53PM

Good job. I can see violent, controlling people using it as a subtle way of threading people and then just saying it was a harmless emoji. Let them spell their threats out in words that can be used against them in a courtroom.

wizard69 · June 17, 2016 11:04PM

rogifan_new said:

So is Apple going to start removing games with violence from the App Store. Or iTunes media that contains violence?

Btw, the Orlando killer was investigated by the FBI 3 times. Why isn't that what everyone is focusing on? How the hell did the FBI let this guy go?

It is OBama's policy to install fear into the US by importing Muslim terrorists to make it easier to implement Marshall law. Make no mistake here the democrats aren't much different than the organizations that gave us WW2 Germany.

wizard69 · June 17, 2016 11:05PM

rogifan_new said:

This is as bad as removin things from Apple's stores that referenced the confederate flag. Absolute nonsense. But that's the politically correct culture Tim Cook is breeding at Apple.

Probably the biggest mistake he has made as a manager.

wizard69 · June 17, 2016 11:07PM

why- said:

funny. I seem to recall many users here stating that they couldn't care two ways about emojis. I agree that this move isn't entirely necessary, but I think you're all blowing it out of proportion

Out of proportion, you have people with not idea what a firearm even is, trying to outlaw them because they are afraid.

daven · June 17, 2016 11:12PM

wizard69 said:

rogifan_new said:

So is Apple going to start removing games with violence from the App Store. Or iTunes media that contains violence?

Btw, the Orlando killer was investigated by the FBI 3 times. Why isn't that what's everyone is focusing on? How the hell did the FBI let this guy go?

It is OBama's policy to install fear into the US by importing Muslim terrorists to make it easier to implement Marshall law. Make no mistake here the democrats aren't much different than the organizations that gave us WW2 Germany.

The killer was born here. Think before you post.

turbopgt · June 17, 2016 11:29PM

Pathetic.

I can't believe this assbackwards world.

apple ][ · June 18, 2016 12:07AM

daven said:

wizard69 said:

It is OBama's policy to install fear into the US by importing Muslim terrorists to make it easier to implement Marshall law. Make no mistake here the democrats aren't much different than the organizations that gave us WW2 Germany.

The killer was born here. Think before you post.

Irrelevant. Their ideology was foreign, from elsewhere.

And their ideology is complete garbage, and it's going to end up in the dumpster soon.

edited June 2016

apple ][ · June 18, 2016 12:20AM

wizard69 said:

Make no mistake here the democrats aren't much different than the organizations that gave us WW2 Germany.

The dems are worse, because the appeasers of the past had less history to draw from, and there's no excuse for such cowardness and appeasement today.

Today's lefists make Chamberlain look good in comparison. What a truly disgusting bunch of people.

Apple led effort to remove rifle emoji from Unicode 9.0, report says

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