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Showing posts from October, 2017

Emojis in a Modern Legal Environment

Emoticons or “emojis” are typically seen as playful additions to an our daily messages, but their exponentially increasing popularity has seen them included in everything from work emails to family chats, utilising emojis in your text messages has quickly developed serious consequences and many users remain ignorant to the seriousness of an otherwise playful emoticon. This has resulted in numerous American court cases where emojis have been submitted as evidence in a trial, and these types of cases will quickly reach South African shores where many contracts are seen to be concluded with a symbolic thumbs-up. While there has yet to be an emoji related case in South Africa, it is logical to draw an inference that the same principles would likely apply should our courts be asked to make such a decision.