SALT LAKE CITY — Rumors of an anti-LGBT emoji coming to smartphones everywhere are just that — rumors.
Social media went off on Tuesday when a Twitter user shared a picture of an LGBT rainbow flag with a crossed-out circle through it. The emoji was believed to be an anti-LGBT emoji, according to The Sacramento Bee.
But the emoji doesn’t exist, according to Fast Company.
“The thing is: This new Apple emoji does not exist. It’s simply a glitch in the system. When using unicode characters, it’s possible to put a strike-through circle next to an emoji and have it look as if it’s overlaying it,” WIRED reported.
According to one Twitter user, the emoji appears because of a glitch:
However, this doesn’t work every time. According to WIRED, the glitch doesn’t appear for desktop users.
A Twitter spokesperson told Paper magazinethat the emoji is due to Unicode, which creates emoji for smartphone users.
- “The way the emoji appears is due to Unicode presentation on iOS, and on its own is not a violation of our rules,” a Twitter spokesperson said. “However, if a user is targeted with this kind of emoji, and we have context that the intention is to shame, degrade, or harass based on membership (or perceived membership) in a protected category, we will action under our Hateful Conduct policies.”