A Canadian Judge has ordered a farmer to pay a contractor a whopping C$82,000 equivalent to 61,000 dollars for an unfulfilled contract
A buyer had sent to the farmer through WhatsApp that he needed to sell 86 tonnes of flax where the farmer replied “sure”
The buyer told texted the farmer to reply by texting him if he would wish to be supplied with the flax, “please confirmed” buyer’s message read
In response, farmer replied with an emoji showing thumbs up after the buyer had shared with him flax contract in the format of pdf
Although the farmer failed to pay the flax after delivery, prompted the buyer to take him to court the latter was found guilty of not honouring the contract as suggested
The judge ruled that the “thumbs-up ” emoji used by the farmer was just as valid as a signature
He argued that courts needs to adopt to the “ new reality of how people communicate nowadays especially millennials
The farmer refused arguing that his emoji was a show that he has received the whatsapp message and that did not mean the delivery of the goods
The court determined that thumbs-up emoji is described as a digital signature
The judge ordered that “the new reality in the society, more emoji are showing up in court cases mostly showing sexual harassment and criminal cases
In 2016 a Jilted Frenchman jailed for texting gun emoji to his ex girlfriend
He was sentenced 6months imprisonment and slapped a fine of 1,200 dollars
In 2017 New Zealand saw a case of stocking where a man was sentenced to jail for 8 months because of an emoji
In 2018, 46 people were slapped with criminal cases in India for replying with an emoji of a ‘smiling face with tears’ to an official WhatsApp group chat
However, the case was later quashed by Madras High Court.
The heart emoji in many different parts of the world coming from someone superior than your position has been translated as sexual harassment and is now punishable in United States