How am I supposed to know how emoji's are rendered on your device.
What if my water pistol turns into a pistol by the time you see it and my harmless fun turns into a threat?
https://money.cnn.com/2016/08/01/technology/apple-pistol-emo...
What if my water pistol turns into a pistol by the time you see it and my harmless fun turns into a threat?
https://money.cnn.com/2016/08/01/technology/apple-pistol-emo...
This isn't a new problem caused by emoji. You could make a similar argument about conversations had over the phone, turn signals, even physical contact.
The simple answer is, it's not "what it looked like to the other person" it's the intent of the author.
In some cases it's the intent that matters, but the law often tries to avoid questions about actual intent because that's too difficult to figure out. Instead the question might hinge on what a reasonable person would have thought, or what the victim actually thought.
Of course the law tries to avoid it. But that’s sometimes impossible, thus disagreements and trials and judges and whatnot.
It’s not like ambiguity causes everything to crash. It just requires judgement that usually gets settled before it gets to court.