A judge in a court case has ruled that a series of texted emoji (shown) constituted a valid agreement to rent an apartment …
The WSJ reports that this is just one instance of lawyers and judges having to interpret the meaning of emojis in emails, texts and other communications.
A judge in another case ruled that the addition of a :P emoticon meant that the message to which it was appended didn’t constitute defamation.
A judge found in favor of the landlord, reasoning the couple had negotiated in bad faith, and fined them a month’s rent as damages, according to the Deakin study.
The difficulty of interpreting the legal meaning of emoji was highlighted by senior lawyers trying to reach a conclusion on the unamused face emoji.
The judges on the Michigan Court of Appeals concluded in 2014 that the emoticon “is used to represent a face with its tongue sticking out to denote a joke or sarcasm.” The court said the comment couldn’t be taken seriously or viewed as defamatory.
The paper reports that the interpretation of emoji and emoticons featured in at least 33 court rulings last year, a number that is steadily increasing.
They couldn’t even agree that the emoji in question—it has raised eyebrows and a frown—looked unamused.
“Everybody said something different,” recalls Morgan Clemons, 33 years old, a regulatory compliance lawyer at Aldridge Pite LLP who organized the gathering last summer at Bryan Cave LLP, called “Emoji Law 101.”
Apartment rental photo: HuffPost
