Wired 
A post by X stating that Apple is trying to delete the “clown” emoji for political reasons has become a hot topic in the United States as it approaches the next presidential election. However, the screenshot attached to the post is fabricated and fake, and the information is completely fake news.
Fake news spread
Information that Apple is planning to remove the “clown” emoji in the next software update for political reasons has been circulating in the United States along with a screenshot from major American media CNBC News.
The title of the image reads, “Next Apple product update will remove clown emoji: sources say this emoji is being used as a code word by far-right groups.”
However, this image was fabricated, and Apple has no plans to remove the clown emoji, making it baseless fake news.
If you search for the title of the article to confirm, you should be able to easily tell that the information is not reliable because there are no hits, but many people got the screenshots and were complicit in spreading the information. It seems that.
Is the source from the Trump supporter community?
The information that Apple would remove the clown emoji because of a particular political ideology was spread by people who were persuaded by screenshots from major media outlets.
The image was posted to a community of supporters of Donald Trump, a candidate for the next US president, and is believed to have been widely distributed via X in a short period of time.
In addition, in the United States and other countries, the clown emoji is used to ridicule the opponent’s claims as ridiculous, but it does not seem to have the meaning of expressing a specific party support or political ideology.
Screenshots created by modifying real articles
The CNBC news image that was spread was fabricated by replacing the title of the actually posted news, and CNBC also denies that it ever published this article.
The original posting date and time of the article, as well as the reporter’s name, are the same as those in the actual article.
Although the fake image shows it as a technology article, the original article is about the restaurant industry, and the author, Kate Rogers, is a reporter specializing in the restaurant industry.
By the way, the article used as material for the fabrication reported that McDonald’s, which uses a clown character in its advertisements, would be offering a $5 set menu for a limited time.
Deleting emojis is a rare case. “Pistol” changed to “water gun”
Emoji, which were born in Japan and are now popular around the world as “Emoji,” have rules determined by the industry organization Unicode Consortium. The design of each emoji is left to each company, such as Apple, Google, and Microsoft.
In a very rare case where an emoji was removed, the “rifle” emoji was removed in 2016. At the time of a series of mass shootings, Apple reportedly suggested removing the word “rifle,” and other companies in the technology industry also agreed.
Also, in 2016, the “pistol” emoji was replaced with “water gun” on iOS.
In 2023, a British boy’s petition to change the “geek face” emoji, which shows people wearing glasses and their front teeth sticking out, became a hot topic.
Source: Politifact, CNBC, AppleInsider, PhoneArena
Source: iPhone Mania