Farmer ordered to pay after judge says thumbs-up emoji amounts to contract acceptance

BrikoX@vlemmy.net to World News@lemmy.ml – 230 points –
Farmer ordered to pay after judge says thumbs-up emoji amounts to contract acceptance
theglobeandmail.com
68

You are viewing a single comment

โ€œI did not have time to review the Flax Contract and merely wanted to indicate that I did receive his text message.โ€

This is what the ๐Ÿ‘€ emoji is for, is it not? "I am acknowledging seeing this."

That's not really how ๐Ÿ‘€ is used these days among the young folk, but I wouldn't expect a random Canadian farmer to know that either.

I don't think that a thumbs up emoji should be a valid signature. The farmer was responding to "please confirm flax contract" and the thumbs up emoji really could mean "I've seen your text and will look at the contract to confirm/deny soon." Although the article did also mention that the same type of acceptance had happened previously with this farmer where the contracts were treated as valid and fulfilled so the farmer is probably disingenuous with their argument.

I would use ๐Ÿ‘€ that way. What else would it be?

Surprise and or shock? Wariness? They look like cartoon eyes on like Wile-E-Coyote or Tom when they realize they're still holding the dynamite. ๐Ÿงจ ๐Ÿ‘€ ๐Ÿ˜จ

It's more like "look at this shit"/"you seeing this?"/โ€œwhoaโ€ for general stuff. Or sometimes with a slightly inappropriate joke or flirting the eyes acknowledge that and lessen it - like saying jk did back in the day.

In this context if I sent a contract to someone younger and they responded ๐Ÿ‘€ I might have to doublecheck if something was glaringly wrong with it.

That's interesting. It's wild how emojis are actually the closest thing we have to a universal language, but that language is still new enough that meanings are very fluid and open to interpretation.

Many times I've gotten the thumbs up as a way to indicate that someone received a message, however it'll only be read later, it can mean that they're doing smt at the moment.

Judge should have mandated the legally less ambiguous ๐Ÿ†๐Ÿ’ฆ combo to agree to a contract

It's very believable that the farmer would not know the difference.

Not according to dictionary.com which the judge referred to for the thumbs up.

They should update the meaning, I also know it as a "read receipt".

If I was going to read a text and respond to it later, I would just... respond to it later.

Am I out of touch? No, it's the children who are wrong.

A lot of people hate being "left on read" where they see a programmed read receipt but aren't actually acknowledged. Or for messages without programmed read receipts it does that as well. The thumbs up is also supposed to end conversations quickly.