
'Inclusivity' has become a priority for plenty of companies over the last few years.
This is especially the case with emojis, which have been considerably diversified to represent a wider range of people.
One landmark example is the hijabi emoji, initially proposed by Saudi-born, Vienna-based teen Rayouf Alhumedhi, who claimed that she simply wanted to see an emoji that looked like her. The proposal paid off, and the result was an expanded keyboard with more options for more people - an undeniable victory, right?
But the latest amendments have sparked online claims that things are being taken too far.
Earlier this week, Jennifer Daniel - a user experience manager for Google emoji - tweeted a brand new salad emoji, without the egg previously nestled in among the lettuce and tomatoes.
There's big talk about inclusion and diversity at Google so if you need any evidence of Google is making this prior… https://t.co/mjqdyUlJhZ— Jennifer Daniel (@Jennifer Daniel) 1528309167
According to the accompanying caption, the aim was to make the emoji more vegan-friendly.
Unsurprisingly, people had a lot to say; some made genuine complaints, but the vast majority made jokes.
@jenniferdaniel Serious question: is this in earnest or intentionally ironic parody?— Matt Corbett (@Matt Corbett) 1528318415
@jenniferdaniel Speaking as a carnivore, I find this salad and specifically the exclusion of eggs (its most nutriti… https://t.co/KaYLq5IkTK— Corine Vloet (@Corine Vloet) 1528323881
Noticing the criticism, Daniel then clarified that the changes were made in order to stay more faithful to the original proposal of the Unicode Consortium, the non-profit which essentially makes all emoji-related decisions.
Hello carnivores, vegans and everyone in between! Just want to clarify that the goal of salad emoji redesign was to… https://t.co/j47QvKrlO7— Jennifer Daniel (@Jennifer Daniel) 1528328599
But obviously, as this is the internet, people just trolled each other.
@nilesturner @jenniferdaniel No, they’re not actually. They come from an animal.— Anna (@Anna) 1528319379
What do you think - is it liberalism gone mad, or a necessary change?