Good news for Kanye! Instagram and Facebook ban 'sexual' emojis including the eggplant and peach and outlaw nude photos with emojis covering sensitive areas as rapper says social media tempts men like the devil tempted Jesus
Facebook and Instagram have banned the use of 'sexual emojis' including the eggplant, peach and water drips.
The new guidelines state that the taboo emojis cannot be used to depict sexual activity and nude body parts can't be covered up with the playful symbols.
However, the social media giants are being criticized for being overly concerned about the hidden meanings of emojis rather than the racism and propaganda that lurks on their sites.
But Kanye West should be thrilled to hear the news because, in recent comments, he said that social media makes men suffer 'like Jesus' as he accused the platforms of fueling sex addiction and tormenting married men.
Facebook has updated its guidelines banning the use of 'commonly sexual emojis' including eggplant (left), peach (right) and the water drips. Posts found with the taboo emojis will be removed and repeat offenders may have their accounts deactivated
'I suffer - and I appreciate the suffering because we can just feel a little bit of what Jesus felt when we suffer, but social media makes me suffer,' West said in the new interview on Beats1 on Apple Music.
'I suffer from that and by me saying this out loud, I'm sure there's other married men that suffer in a similar way that are happy to hear me say, 'Oh ya, I'm suffering.''
The rapper, 42, took aim at women - like his wife Kim Kardashian West- who use the platforms to share racy snaps, suggesting these are images that they 'wouldn't have put out' if the apps didn't exist.
But now with Facebook and Instagram's war on sexual emojis, West and other men like him will not have to worry about suggestive captions along with racy photos.
The reason three specific emojis are being targeted is because they are used to suggest sexual activities.
The eggplant emoji has been used to suggest a penis, a peach resembles a buttocks and water drips are in reference to ejaculation.
They can still be used in captions, but not in a manner that suggests or asks for anything sexual.
The new guidelines were first brought to light by XBIZ, which reported that Facebook revised its Sexual Solicitation Community Standards between September 7 and October 24, according to The Daily Dot.
The change is aimed at sex workers who will no longer be able to use the digital icons to sell services on both Facebook and Instagram.
But the ban could affect other users who simply use the emojis to joke about or talk about sex.
Facebook has also stated that it is against the new policies to use the banned emojis to cover genitalia in pictures that are shared on the platforms.
The new rules come from section 16 of Community Standards, under 'Sexual Solicitation.'
In the introduction to this new addition, Facebook states that they draw the line 'When content facilitates, encourages or coordinates sexual encounters between adults.'
And there are two new criteria that fall under this section.
The first being is a user must 'implicitly or indirectly' offer some form of sexual communication, be it 'nude imagery,' sex, or 'sex chat conversations.'
The second criteria is that content has to have some form of 'sexually suggestive elements.'
That includes, among other things, 'contextually specific and commonly sexual emojis or emoji strings.'
This means that using one of the emojis deemed sexual can result in your post being removed and repeated us of the digital images, can result in your account being deactivated.
The social media sites may think they are doing right in the world by banning sexual emojis, but the public feels otherwise.
Many Twitter users are ridiculing Facebook for using its time to ban emojis while letting hate run rampant on its sites.
'Facebook's about to start banning people for smutty art and butt shots. They still won't ban Nazis and TERFs because 'free speech,' but god help you if you use an eggplant emoji,' one user shared.
Another chastised the site for not banning certain images such as confederate flags and MAGA hats.
And this is not the first time there has been a war on emojis – Instagram has tried to ban the eggplant in 2015.
Instagram confirmed that the eggplant was blocked because it violated their community guidelines, Buzzfeed reported, which revealed users can still search for the gun, syringe and corncob emoji, a search for the eggplant results in 'no tags found'.
