Some notable changes were new female athletes, a gay pride flag, and the gun was redesigned as a cute squirt gun. Theranos unveiled a Zika-detection box – sending the scientific community into further skepticism.Ĥ. Facebook introduced a new anti-clickbait algorithm that punishes headlines based on a ranking scale.ĥ. Apple dropped a new iOS 10 beta with 100 new emojis. The blood analysis startup was supposed to reveal their tech this week, but instead introduced a whole new hardware product. We spoke with Instagram’s CEO about the decision to essentially clone Snapchat, and he claimed that “Snapchat deserves all the credit.” Facebook also went as far as adding Olympics-themed filters and frames in further examples of copying Snapchat. Still puzzled? Here’s how “Stories” works.ģ. Theranos is still fraught with possible criminal charges, lawsuits, test result recalls and Congressional inquiry. While at first this may seem like an admission of failure for Uber, it’s actually a win-win.Ģ. Instagram shocked the social world by launching “Stories,” a Snapchatty new feature for imperfect, ephemeral sharing. Didi Chuxing will buy Uber China, its former competitor. The two companies will retain distinct brands, app and business operations, and it sounds like the backends will be merged. You can receive the Weekly Roundup in your inbox every Saturday, if that’s your kinda thing.ġ. Here are this week’s top stories in tech.
Not only that, but how people can get away with passing something like this off as a mere joke, trying to totally discredit any negative intent that may have come with this emoji.This week tech companies worked their angles for the Rio Olympics, Uber China gave into Didi Chuxing and Instagram cloned Snapchat with an ephemeral new feature. This also goes to prove how quickly rumors, like that of how Apple allegedly created the emoji when they did not, can spread. It doesn’t seem such a glitch is fixable, but hopefully the use of hateful symbols will die down in time.
It also serves as yet another example of how quickly information can spread through platforms on social media. It seems to be most of the usage of it is more-so from internet memes and gags than actual hate, although it is arguable if joking about such things is offensive or not. The emoji sparked quite a concerning outcry for a simple glitch in unicode software, but it is not the fault of any company. But does it merit all the outcry it’s getting? No, probably not.” Where is the outrage over that, glitch or not?”Īnother junior, Graham Jones, who has a bit of a different take, responds, “A majority of sources I’ve seen are saying it’s just a glitch, If I’m being entirely honest I don’t think it’s that bad, I do believe it’s a bit distasteful. What frustrates me further is that nobody is talking about the cross through the black man, the flag with the Star of David, or the Kaaba. It’s hard to not take everything offensively these days when your community has been marginalized in every way for decades. Regardless, I see why the LGBT community is in an outrage over this.
Love Lundy, a junior, comments, “I’ve been told that it’s a glitch. Essentially copy and pasting a cancellation symbol over any emoji, like the pride flag, will create the seemingly anti symbol. It is, in fact, a glitch and not an official Apple emoji however, that does not diminish the fact that it is offensive to copy and paste what would be deemed a hate symbol over the internet.Īt first, it was not apparent this was the case, but it is actually a unicode glitch, as several experts online have already explained. The initial reaction on social media was due to the public believing it was a new or official emoji. The emoji in question immediately went viral on a Twitter post. Understandably, it has garnered a fair bit of outrage from members of the LGBT community, as well as its allies. An anti-gay flag emoji has been circulating on Twitter and Instagram for a few days now.