With colorful caricatures ranging from mind-blown facial expressions ? to coconut shrimp ?, there are hundreds of emoji to express a multitude of different feelings, thoughts, and emotions. In the last decade, emoji have cemented a permanent place in the world of e-communications. Emoji now represent a diverse array of skin tones ✋✋?✋?✋? and physical disability ? ?. Oxford Dictionaries’ 2015 Word of the Year was awarded to the Face with Tears of Joy Emoji ?. It should stand as no surprise that everyone’s favorite new way to communicate has permeated its way into our legal system.
Let’s start with the prevalence of emoji in our virtual vernacular. According to Slate, 92% of the online population uses emoji. As of 2016, 2.3 trillion mobile messages incorporate emoji annually as of 2016. That means nearly 10 trillion emoji-laced messages have been sent in the past four years.