The myriad meanings behind emojis can present challenges to legal professionals in litigation matters that include these popular symbols. In an EDRM webinar, legal experts Brett Burney, Monique Braun, and Anand Matthew walked through what exactly emojis are, how we use them in daily communication, and why it’s important to understand the role of emojis in ediscovery.
Interpreting emojis requires nuance. Does this emoji 🙏 represent praying or a high-five? Is 😚 someone whistling or blowing a kiss? Does a thumbs up 👍 mean “good job!” or “I agree to enter into a binding contract with you”?
In this blog, we’ll dive into key 🔑 insights from the webinar and review important steps 🪜 to take when tackling emojis in litigation.
📖 Emojis 101: History + Unicodes
Emojis are nothing new. We have been using small, digital pictures to represent feelings, objects, and ideas since the late 20th century, starting with emoticons and pixel art. This visual form of communication even traces back to ancient hieroglyphics.
The Unicode Consortium was incorporated in 1991 to ensure digital characters display successfully across different systems. It assigns each symbol a unique codepoint – a numerical value that identifies that character.
In ediscovery, emojis and other digital characters are stored and produced as Unicode codepoints. So, when you collect a smiling face ☺️, you are actually collecting its codepoint: “U+1F60A.”
💬 Why Emojis Matter in eDiscovery
In 2011, Apple released the emoji keyboard with the launch of iOS 5, sparking a surge in emoji usage across digital platforms. As a result, these symbols quickly became an everyday form of communication, transforming into their own language. We can tell stories, react to conversations, and shorten sentences and slang – all with emojis.
Emojis routinely function as pictorial substitutes for written text. However, they are not a universal language with a single meaning. The absence of words pushes us to look at context to interpret these communications.
This is why emojis can play an important role in discovery when present in the electronic evidence. In order to build a compelling story in a legal case, we must understand the relationships between various individuals and how they communicate with each other. Determining the meaning behind an emoji allows us to unlock the full significance of a piece of ESI involving emojis.
⚖️ Types of Challenges with Emojis
Technical Challenges ⚙️
- There are 3,700+ emojis in the Unicode standard, which can become overwhelming to navigate.
- Aside from standard emojis, custom emojis also exist in conversation. These will not have a Unicode codepoint, as they are unique to specific systems. (For example, the AI-generated Genmojis can only be rendered on Apple devices.) Custom emojis will appear as image attachments instead.
- Emojis, despite having the same codepoint, can have varying appearances across different systems.
- Existing emojis can evolve over time, whether through a small design tweak or a complete visual overhaul. What they look like today may change a year from now.
Interpretive Challenges ✍️
- Emojis are an ambiguous form of communication. The sender likely has a specific intent behind the emoji, but the receiver may interpret it in a completely different manner than intended.
- An emoji’s meaning can be tied to the text surrounding it.
- Certain emojis may have different meanings based on cultural or generational context.
eDiscovery Challenges 💻
- Legal professionals must understand the individuals and context behind a conversation rather than purely interpreting the emojis on paper. This pushes document review beyond the raw data to become a more people-centric endeavor.
- Proving intent through emojis requires additional layers of nuance: understanding the sender’s intent, the receiver’s perception, the emoji’s contextual relationship with accompanying text, and other external circumstances.
- When interpreting emojis, it’s difficult to pinpoint if an emoji was used as a reaction or purposeful communication.
- When collecting emojis, legal professionals must consider the original source, how the data will be reviewed post-collection, and how it will be displayed later on. These factors will impact access to emoji data down the line.
Emojis can make or break your case when they’re a component of the ESI. Perhaps opposing counsel claims their client never agreed to something – but you found the thumbs up-emoji that just might prove otherwise. Understanding the technical and contextual implications of emojis in ediscovery will give you the upper hand in litigation matters that increasingly feature these digital symbols.
★ Need a deeper dive into the world 🌎 of emojis?
Make sure to watch the full Nextpoint + EDRM webinar, “How to Navigate Emojis in eDiscovery,” and learn more from legal experts Brett Burney, Monique Braun, and Anand Matthew as they breakdown the emoji from its conception to its legal challenges.
