“Police in the Kirov region are investigating whether the tiny yellow couples present in Apple’s built-in iOS keyboard pose a violation of the country’s widely-criticized law banning the ‘propaganda of nontraditional sexual relations to minors,'” Corinne Purtill reports for Reuters.
MacDailyNews Note: Mac’s have also used emoji since the release of Mac OS X 10.7 Lion on July 20, 2011.
“The broadly-worded 2013 legislation has been used to arrest and detain peaceful demonstrators of LGBT rights.” Purtill reports, “The emoji suit was launched in August by Yaroslav Mikhailov, a Kirov attorney who previously made international headlines for instigating a police investigation into an opposition journalist who posted an Instagram photo of herself dressed up as an Orthodox priest.”
“If found in violation of the law,” Purtill reports, “Apple could face fines of 800,000 to 1 million rubles ($12,200-15,250) and a three-month suspension in Russia.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Although emoji have become increasingly popular after their international inclusion in Apple’s iPhone and despite the fact that Apple Color Emoji is the most significant font released in this century so far, the Unicode Consortium, not Apple, is responsible for maintaining the Unicode standard, which includes emoji.
SEE ALSO:
Gun control advocates launch campaign to ban gun emoji from iPhones – July 31, 2015
Bacon emoji is coming; pregnant woman and tuxedoed man, too! – May 21, 2015
Apple releases iOS 8.3 with new emojis, new Siri languages and more – April 8, 2015
Mac OS X 10.10.3 Public Beta: All-new Photos app, new emoji, and more – March 4, 2015
Some Asians angered by Apple’s ‘racist’ yellow emoji – February 24, 2015
Apple to deliver new racially diverse emoji – February 23, 2015
