Beyond the emoji | VPRO Documentary

Every day we send seven billion emojis worldwide. Although the colorful icons called emojis can no longer be ignored in our daily communication, little is known about it. Who has power over the emoji? Where are emojis coming from?

There is one "High Council" of online communication that is difficult to access and has the power over our emoji selection on the keyboard: The Unicode Consortium. This group is difficult to access and meets four times a year on the west coast of the United States. This tech giants committee makes decisions about language and shapes the infrastructure of the online world. Representatives from Apple, Microsoft, Facebook, Google, IBM, Netflix, Amazon, and Intel set the global standard for symbols, characters, and fonts in digital (visual) language so that all our devices can communicate with each other effortlessly.

Part of Unicode is the twelve-member "Emoji Commission." Director Mea Dols de Jong got a foot in the door during the quarterly meeting at Microsoft's headquarters in Redmond, Seattle, but also ran into the shocking closedness of the tech sector. The deeper she delves into the world behind the seemingly little icons, the better she sees that this micro-world is a reflection of the "real" world. What does it take to get a new emoji on the phone's keyboard? Take a look at the campaign for a new white wine emoji. Why is the LGBTQI rainbow flag emoji in the keyboards, but not the one that stands for transgender people? Where lies the power to make such decisions?

Original title: voorbij de emoji

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[InfinityAndParadox]

I absolutely adore your Docus. Thanks, VPRO!

[miss.apprehended]

As a self-professed purveyor of excessive emoji (ab)use🙋‍♀️💁‍♀️- I've soo been l👀king forward to this 🆒️🆕️ premiere🙏🙆‍♀️..🤭🙊

[vprodocumentary]

Hi there, English subs are in CC (closed captions). At the moment, we are still busy with Spanish and French subtitles!

[StanMovies]

I put this in my to watch list and today, 4 months later I finally watched it. I love documentaries like this where it highlights a 'hidden world' of something that I could and should have asked myself but never did. I started to use more emojis recently, to give colour to my messages. I would love to boycot it, in the hope many would follow, forcing it to become liberal. But I feel to small in this, knowing that I most likely just 'limit' my texting, not making much of a change. Thanks for making me think.

One thing I believe this episode missed is interviewing the Dutch woman who made many of the first Apple emojis, including the (in)famous poop emoji.

Thanks for the great show and for uploading it to give it as a gift to the world.

[legion]

i likie watching documentaries, because they make me smarter. But after watching this one i feel more stupid. :(

[Tereb]

some ppl really have A LOT of time on their hands 😑

[Neander]

Emotes should complete and integrate languages, not replace them. Otherwise, that would mean a simple return to the "Stone Age", with pictograms and all that stuff, upon which modern alphabets developed, because of the need of deeper and more complex thoughts and communication forms overall.
It would be a weird loop cycle, provided that we won't just actually regress; and this is already happening in many ways.

[lowerastral]

This has only spurred me on to create and use my own "emotion icons". To think that there are actually committees who control this $#!+ is dumbfounding. For instance, what I hate about most "emojis" is that on my email server, I have the most BORING, most MUNDANE looking emojis. They're BORING and absolutely UGLY! Then, on my phone, I like the emojis I see on the screen, but when I select one to use, the one that ends up in my comment doesn't look ANYTHING like the one in my PHONE selection! Screw that $#!+! I'm just not going to use them anymore. Emojis are infantile, to say the least.


Why does Apple corporation get to decide how many emojis get to be added to the digital language of our computer systems each year? F*ck Apple! What gives them supreme control over something like that? I am so sick and tired of mega-corporations controlling our lives.

[jillsmcfarland]

Too bad our creative minds are controlled.

[Johnny-hnts]

Complaining about no white wine or trans flag?! Lmao these people are weird as hell

[bongoonusondhan]

Nice video. Keep it up. I have suggestion to you, you can watch "Explain With Shbham Sarkar" for new concept

[afallin]

Saw this doc a few weeks ago on a national tv, i was stunned to find out this was the new global language. i was like this ---> :F (personal emoji for thoughtful and bitting lip, i'v been using it since mirc old days.)

[Fabrikoooo]

A Science of Communication is needed to create a new language that doesn't subject to interpretation, but it can't be done in the current system.

[jozeyjones]

"I want to express trans", says the trans person. Er, you could use words. In the days when people wrote letters, there was no emoji controversy. And she spends four years campaigning for the trans emoji ?! FFS, campaign for human rights in China or something, or maybe consider getting a life. And the fact that emojis are decided upon by a committee of people.... I means seriously, who cares?

[droidon]

Stickers are much better, emojis are ⚰️, Also, white wine is 💩

[businesslp]

White males get to decide what emojis are used.. Unicode 5:55

[DeeCeeDees]

1984 News Speak. That’s the future it seems, but news speak will be emoji speak