The opposition flag now flying at Syria's Moscow embassy may have to wait before it appears on smartphones, despite calls for its swift adoption as an emoji following the fall of Bashar Assad, The National reported.
Millions of celebrating Syrians have taken to the streets waving the opposition banner – featuring three stars with green, white, and black stripes – prompting global demands for its official recognition. The flag, first used after France granted independence in the 1940s, stands in contrast to the current national flag adopted in 1980 under Hafez Al Assad's rule.
Users on social media platform X have flooded the Unicode Consortium's account with requests to update the Syrian flag emoji, even responding to posts unrelated to Syria. "All of the colorful emoji images found on various devices are supplied and distributed by vendors for their products," the Consortium, which standardizes emoji codes across billions of mobile devices globally, told The National. "Any concerns or comments should be directed to the manufacturer of your device."
Apple, one of the major device manufacturers, has received similar requests through its community support forums.
In a 2022 blog post titled "The Past and Present of the Flag Emoji", Unicode announced it would no longer accept flag emoji submissions. "The inclusion of new flags will always continue to emphasize the exclusion of others," the post stated, adding that "countries change but Unicode additions are forever – once a character is added it can never be removed."
The Consortium noted that flags, despite being the largest emoji category, are among the least used, with few exceptions like the rainbow flag. This contributes to the complexity of encoding new flag standards across platforms.
While Unicode's emoji subcommittee considers new emoji proposals, submitters must demonstrate their design breaks new ground, isn't overly specific, and fills a justified need. However, the final appearance of emojis remains under the control of device manufacturers and operating systems, resulting in slight variations between platforms while maintaining recognition.
The current Syrian flag features horizontal stripes of red, white, and black from top to bottom, with two green stars representing Egypt and Syria as the founding nations of the United Arab Republic.
