Neither is the combination of the two characters a glitch.Īccording to Emojipedia, the ‘no’ symbol-officially named the ‘Combining Enclosing Circle Backslash’-is programmed to float above the emoji that precedes it. Screenshots taken by users reveal that the alienating symbol appears on other networks as well, such as Instagram.
People reading his tweet with the iPhone would see that the crossed-out circle is hoisted over the LGBT flag, creating what looks like a single emoji.
The ‘emoji’ was first discovered in January, when Twitter user Mitchell-who goes by the handle ‘ mioog’ and identifies as gay-tweeted a combination of the pride flag and prohibition sign emojis next to each other. Luckily, it’s not a new-or even real-icon that’s set to roll out with 2019’s edition of emoticons, but the result of the way Unicode is programmed. Twitter users have been in a frenzy over a supposed ‘anti-gay emoji’ that sees the pride flag being canceled out.
