Facebook and Instagram have quietly banned the use of certain emoji in a sexual manner, in an attempt to weed out sexual solicitation on their platforms.

The emojis affected include the eggplant, the peach and the water drip, which are all emojis widely known to have sexual connotations.

Which emojis are affected?

Although Facebook's community standards page did not provide a comprehensive list of the emojis affected, publications such as the New York Post and the Daily Mail have identified three emoji as being banned, if used in a sexual manner:

The eggplant emoji, most commonly used to depict male genitalia:

The peach emoji, which resembles buttocks:

And the water droplets emoji, often used to imply ejaculation:

This list is not exhaustive, and other emojis used to convey various sexual connotations will likely come under the updated guidelines.

Not an outright ban

Neither Facebook nor Instagram has outright banned the use of these emojis.

They will only be banned if their use falls under Facebook's Sexual Solicitation policy.

According to the policy, a user's post must meet two criteria in order to be banned.

Firstly, it has to contain an "offer or ask" for something that is deemed to be sexual in nature.

This can include soliciting sex, asking for or offering nude photographs, or asking for explicit chats.

The second criteria involves suggestive elements, which includes "contextually specific and commonly sexual emoji and emoji string".

Essentially, if these emojis are used in a sexual manner to offer or ask for sexual services of any kind, they will be banned.

Reactions are mixed

Reactions to the emoji ban were mixed.

Some felt that the social media giants should be more concerned about more pressing issues.

So they can’t ban political lies/propaganda but they’re all over the eggplant emoji?

— Fiona B (@Feebeekiwi) October 29, 2019

They have their priorities right... Ignore all the hateful and harmful content on their platform and focus on emojis

— @[email protected] #UnVérified (@davidiwanow) October 30, 2019

One user pointed out that creative netizens will not be impeded by this ban.

https://twitter.com/DuckDuckBieber/status/1189240853543444480

Another user saw the bright side to all this, suggesting it might be time for other emojis to enter the spotlight.

Sexual use of the #eggplant & #peach #emojis are now #banned on #Facebook & #Instagram. This is actually gr8 news for the banana, carrot, hotdog, taco, & donut emoji to finally make their debut. You know how long these guys have been waiting in the wings for their time to shine? pic.twitter.com/vEZxZHinXk

— Alan Boccadoro (@bocc1_) October 29, 2019

Well, you can't ban them all.

Top images via Knowyourmeme.

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