Fake news report sparks Apple clown emoji claim

By David Williams

There is no suggestion Apple will get rid of its clown emoji. (AP PHOTO)

What was claimed

CNBC has reported that Apple is removing the clown emoji from its devices.

Our verdict

False. The CNBC news report is fake.

AAP FACTCHECK - US news network CNBC has reported that Apple will remove the clown emoji from all its devices because it’s being used by the political right to attack the left, social media users have claimed.

This is false. The CNBC news report has been fabricated. There is no evidence Apple is removing the clown emoji.

The claim appears in posts on Facebook and across other social media platforms.

"Upcoming Apple device update set to remove clown emoji: sources say emoji used as a Far-Right 'dog whistle'," the supposed news headline reads.

An example of one of the fake news stories — The CNBC article is a fake.

A supposed screenshot of the CNBC headline is a doctored version of a real story about McDonald’s.

A spokesperson for the news organisation has said the article in question was never published.

AAP FactCheck has written to Apple asking if it has announced the removal of the clown emoji. No response has been received.

There are no legitimate news stories regarding Apple removing the emoji.

The removal has not been mentioned in recent reports on the Apple iOS 18 upgrade due in September in reports from technology media outlets 9T05Mac and MacRumors.

Apple Iphones at the Apple Store in Sydney — Apple did not respond to AAP FactCheck but there is no evidence it plans to remove the emoji

Apple has not said the clown is a problem, and will not be removing it from iPhones, according to the Apple Insider website.

Apple did replace its hand gun emoji with a water pistol in September 2016 following an uptick in gun violence in the US.

The Unicode Consortium is a group of hardware and software companies that sets the standards for emojis on vendor devices, including Apple products.

The Unicode Emoji Standard and Research Working Group is in charge of adding and removing emojis from the standards.

The consortium confirmed that there's no plan to remove the clown emoji.

“The clown emoji is a vibrant part of the emoji set and its codepoint has not been removed from the Unicode Standard," a Unicode Consortium spokesman told AAP FactCheck.

Politifact, USA Today and Reuters have also debunked the claim.

The Verdict

False — The claim is inaccurate.

AAP FactCheck is an accredited member of the International Fact-Checking Network. To keep up with our latest fact checks, follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

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