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[...] The Emojipedia website argued that the symbol could still appear as a lifelike gun in messages sent to non-iOS users. Apple made the change in the wake of a series of shootings in the US.
However, Microsoft announced this week that its toy gun symbol would be redesigned as a more realistic-looking firearm. The emoji character system allows companies to use slightly different designs of the same basic objects, signs or expressions.
"The thing is, emojis already look different on different platforms and it does cause confusion," Jeremy Burge, editor of Emojipedia, told the BBC. "When we're dealing with guns and toys as a comparison, that's a whole new level of problems that we have there."
[...] "Apple has the most prominent emoji set that people use," said Mr Burge. "I think it has a high responsibility to be a bit cautious."
There was further criticism from web users, but a columnist in the Guardian praised the move as a statement on gun control.
"It's a smart, small part in the battle - which we're presently losing - to keep Americans safe," wrote Jean Hannah Edelstein. There have been calls previously - including from a campaign called Disarm the iPhone - to remove the handgun icon from iOS devices.
[...] Both Apple and Microsoft have said they are working with the Unicode Consortium - the body that maintains lists of emojis across different platforms.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by theluggage on Sunday August 07 2016, @12:58PM
Seriously? Which way do you want to look at this?
The idea that the easy availability of guns and the legal right for everybody to carry them might result in more shootings is, at the very least, a hypothesis worthy of debate.
The idea that the availability or otherwise of "realistic" gun Emoji might have any practical effect - not so much.
OK, so you think the image of a gun should be treated as unacceptable and you want to reject "gun culture". I can respect that position. So you delete the gun Emoji and leave a blank - right? Er, no, you replace it with a picture of a toy in the shape of a gun. What? That's the most self-contradictory idea since vegetarian bacon! If you don't approve of guns to the extent that you don't want pictures of them then why the flying fuck would toy guns be somehow OK? That's before you engage braincell #2 and realise the consequence that, in emoj-talk, a message saying "I'm going to humorously squirt water at you" in Emoji-speak sent from an iPhone will come out as "I'm gonna pop a cap in your ass" on Android.
Honestly - makes me feel like squirting water in my ear (written on a Mac).
But then, censorship knows no logic: I remember, even as a kid, wondering how the A-Team got away with R-rated levels of violence by simply making a point of showing people getting up and walking away from shootouts, explosions and crashes that should have left them maimed and crippled. Seriously - if you don't want to glorify violence, don't make it look like fun.