Government agency removes spoon emoji from work platform amid protests

techcrunch.com Government agency removes spoon emoji from work platform amid protests | TechCrunch

According to a New York Times report, on Thursday, the U.S. government's General Services Administration (GSA) removed the spoon emoji as an option that

According to a New York Times report, on Thursday, the U.S. government’s General Services Administration (GSA) removed the spoon emoji as an option that users of its videoconferencing platform can select to express themselves.
The move comes a day after workers embraced the digital cutlery to protest the Trump administration’s “Fork in the Road” resignation offer.

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Government agency removes spoon emoji from work platform amid protests

techcrunch.com /2025/02/06/government-agency-removes-spoon-emoji-from-work-platform-amid-protests/

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𓊤
⠀⠀⢀⣀⣀⡀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⣴⣿⣿⣿⣿⣶⣄⡀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠙⠻⠿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣷⣄⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠈⠉⠛⠿⣿⣿⣿⣦⡀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠈⠙⢿⣿⣿⣦⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠈⠻⣿⣷⣄⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠈⢿⣿⣦⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠙⣿⣧⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠘⣿⣷⣤⣀⣀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣦⣄⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⣏⠹⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣧⡀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⢻⡄⠙⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣷⡀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠈⢻⣦⡈⠻⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣧⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠙⠻⣶⣤⣙⣻⣿⣿⠏⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠉⠉⠛⠋⠁⠀⠀
- o—
  
  —Ð (I figure they may need a shovel now)
- I miss ascii art! Back in IRC days when bandwidth was not great we could have really used the efficiency of emojis. Instead, you got sent a wall of text that looked like something and your entire internet slowed down for a minute.
  
  Unless your IRC window wasn't wide enough, in which case you got a wall of text that looked like nothing and it still slowed your Internet down!

It's like China banning Winnie the Pooh for hurting Xi's feelings...
- Some bootlicker said the Chinese are racist for that meme
  
  Pretty sure I saw the comment you referenced but no, they said Americans were being racist because Pooh is yellow which you could probably argue, considering it originally also depicted Tigger (with a hard r) as Obama...
  If the origin wasn't in China. If you'd told me it started on /b/ then yeah it would have been meant as racism.
  So I can certainly see the origin of the criticism, if not sticking with it after finding out the actual context.

Showing profound levels of insecurity here.

So I guess... censorship?
- This is Winnie the Pooh stuff.
- That is about as clear cut an example of political censorship as there could possibly be.

Reminds me of when Boeing removed the 🤡 a few years back because workers were shit-talking management on Teams. Removing emojis is petty nonsense. Maybe they feds should move from spoon 🥄 to 🤡 until that gets banned.

I am sitting here trying desperately to understand this.
They got rid of an emoji. Specifically 🥄, which is a default emoji.
How?
It's on every computer and platform. Did they call slack? Tell them to remove the emoji? If they did, how did slack remove a fucking default emoji? Are they blocking the Unicode?
What the actual fuck.
- In the article it says it's removed from the video conference software used internally. The admins apparently can do it there.
  
  Ah thanks for the clarification. The slack part bit was at the end. It's too early in the morning.
- Because we’re already in the “yeah, that may as well happen, why not“ -stage. Remember how crazy it got in 2020? We’re doing a rerun of all the.
- Word filter?

Why do these government agencies keep complying in advance? Why are they giving ground in little ways for nothing? Is some of the GSA leadership loyal to Trump?
- It's an executive branch department of which the president is the head.
  
  No, that's reductive BS. The GSA is an independent agency of the federal government:
  The term refers only to those independent agencies that, while considered part of the executive branch, have regulatory or rulemaking authority and are insulated from presidential control, usually because the president's power to dismiss the agency head or a member is limited.
  Established through separate statutes passed by Congress, each respective statutory grant of authority defines the goals the agency must work towards, as well as what substantive areas, if any, over which it may have the power of rulemaking. These agency rules (or regulations), when in force, have the power of federal law.
  The president DOES NOT have the power to fire people from this agency, nor change its rules without involving congress. Congress made this agency, and the president's job is to oversee its administration. Despite being the head of the executive branch, the president doesn't have direct authority over the GSA.

Reminds me of a line from Earthworm Jim that stuck with me: "do you mock me, spoon? I shall be your master!"
Also, The Tick

Take away the spoon, you're telling them it's time to use a knife. Is that really how you want it to go?
- 👨‍🚀🔫👨‍🚀

When they fork with your spoon... They push you to consider the knife.

- Whats the name of this character? I vaguely remember it from childhood in Russia lol

🥄🥣🍴🗡️🍽️🍴

You get what you vote for America. Now the morons are running the asylum.
- Founding Fathers specifically create a system designed to protect their property from the tyranny of the majority (aka the poors)
  System breaks because a minor majority of the population puts a rich populist in charge