According to a New York Times report, on Thursday, the U.S. government’s General Services Administration (GSA) removed the spoon emoji as an option that users of its videoconferencing platform can select to express themselves.
The move comes a day after workers embraced the digital cutlery to protest the Trump administration’s “Fork in the Road” resignation offer.
Showing profound levels of insecurity here.
🥄🥣🍴🗡️🍽️🍴
Reminds me of when Boeing removed the 🤡 a few years back because workers were shit-talking management on Teams. Removing emojis is petty nonsense. Maybe they feds should move from spoon 🥄 to 🤡 until that gets banned.
𓊤
⠀⠀⢀⣀⣀⡀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⣴⣿⣿⣿⣿⣶⣄⡀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠙⠻⠿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣷⣄⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠈⠉⠛⠿⣿⣿⣿⣦⡀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠈⠙⢿⣿⣿⣦⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠈⠻⣿⣷⣄⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠈⢿⣿⣦⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠙⣿⣧⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠘⣿⣷⣤⣀⣀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣦⣄⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⣏⠹⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣧⡀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⢻⡄⠙⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣷⡀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠈⢻⣦⡈⠻⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣧⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠙⠻⣶⣤⣙⣻⣿⣿⠏⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠉⠉⠛⠋⠁⠀⠀
I miss ascii art! Back in IRC days when bandwidth was not great we could have really used the efficiency of emojis. Instead, you got sent a wall of text that looked like something and your entire internet slowed down for a minute.
Unless your IRC window wasn’t wide enough, in which case you got a wall of text that looked like nothing and it still slowed your Internet down!
So I guess… censorship?
This is Winnie the Pooh stuff.
I am sitting here trying desperately to understand this.
They got rid of an emoji. Specifically 🥄, which is a default emoji.
How?
It’s on every computer and platform. Did they call slack? Tell them to remove the emoji? If they did, how did slack remove a fucking default emoji? Are they blocking the Unicode?
What the actual fuck.
In the article it says it’s removed from the video conference software used internally. The admins apparently can do it there.
When they fork with your spoon… They push you to consider the knife.
Take away the spoon, you’re telling them it’s time to use a knife. Is that really how you want it to go?
👨🚀🔫👨🚀
It’s like China banning Winnie the Pooh for hurting Xi’s feelings…
Whats the name of this character? I vaguely remember it from childhood in Russia lol
The Tick
Knives are better anyway
Not for soup
I eat my peas with honey, I’ve done it all my life; it makes them taste quite funny, but it keeps them on my knife.
Why do these government agencies keep complying in advance? Why are they giving ground in little ways for nothing? Is some of the GSA leadership loyal to Trump?
It’s an executive branch department of which the president is the head.
No, that’s reductive BS. The GSA is an independent agency of the federal government:
[T]he term refers only to those independent agencies that, while considered part of the executive branch, have regulatory or rulemaking authority and are insulated from presidential control, usually because the president’s power to dismiss the agency head or a member is limited.
Established through separate statutes passed by Congress, each respective statutory grant of authority defines the goals the agency must work towards, as well as what substantive areas, if any, over which it may have the power of rulemaking. These agency rules (or regulations), when in force, have the power of federal law.
The president DOES NOT have the power to fire people from this agency, nor change its rules without involving congress. Congress made this agency, and the president’s job is to oversee its administration. Despite being the head of the executive branch, the president doesn’t have direct authority over the GSA.
Who appoints the leadership?
The president does. Who makes the laws (including the law creating this department)?
