Some emojis should be avoided when communicating professionally. For example, that with the heap of feces can definitely be interpreted one way or the other. It also always depends on who is the sender and who is the recipient and how the two relate to each other.
With the thumbs up, there is no double bottom and little room for interpretation. This is exactly what became Chris Achter’s undoing. The Canadian farmer responded with the thumbs-up emoji to a contract he received via text message. Now he has to pay around 56,000 euros in damages, as a judge in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan decided.
In March 2021, Achter and a representative from grain merchant South West Terminal (SWT) negotiated a deal in flax. SWT wanted to buy 87 tons at a total price of around 40,000 euros per ton. Aft should deliver in November 2021. After the phone call, the buyer sent Kent Mickleborough a photo of the contract he had signed and wrote: “Please confirm the flax contract”. Aft responded with a thumbs up.
24 emojis appear in the written verdict
Mickleborough took that as an agreement. According to him, in the past, Achter only answered “Looks good”, “Ok” or “Yup” and then delivered. This time SWT waited in vain for the grain. The flax price more than doubled between March and November, and Achter did not want to deliver at the previously agreed price. With the reaction he only wanted to express that the contract had arrived. SWT sued him for damages, the case ended up in court.
Thumbs up – this hand signal is actually pretty clear. Does that also apply in the digital world?
(Photo: Imago Classic)
In of the verdict published in June the thumb appears 24 times. The judge goes to great lengths to trace the meaning of the emoji, citing the Entry from Dictionary.com dictionary. According to this, the symbol in Western cultures stands for consent, approval or encouragement in digital communication. The judge writes that he is unsure how authoritative this source is. “But it seems to agree with my understanding from everyday use – even as a latecomer to the world of technology.”
Elon Musk communicates through turds
Achter’s lawyer argued that his client was not an expert on emojis. In addition, you open Pandora’s box if you equate emojis with digital signatures. Then courts would soon have to deal with the meaning of shaking hands or fists. He couldn’t convince the judge: “This court readily recognizes that an emoji is an unusual means of ‘signing’ a document, but under the circumstances it was an effective way.”
It’s not the first time emojis have ended up in court. It was often about virtual piles of feces, most recently a judge at the renowned Court of Chancery in Delaware puzzled over what Elon Musk probably meant when he replied to the Twitter boss at the time with the unsavory little picture. Today Musk owns Twitter, and he’s free to indulge his love for feces. If you send a press request to Twitter, you’ll automatically get a bunch of shit back. This confuses some. But that should at least aptly symbolize how Chris Achter felt after the verdict.