this post was submitted on 08 Feb 2025
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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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[–] PainInTheAES@lemmy.world 107 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

𓊤

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[–] wise_pancake@lemmy.ca 39 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)
[–] adespoton@lemmy.ca 5 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

—Ð (I figure they may need a shovel now)

[–] sik0fewl@lemmy.ca 26 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

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.

[–] SaintWacko@slrpnk.net 27 points 2 weeks ago

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!

[–] Zedstrian@lemmy.dbzer0.com 83 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

It's like China banning Winnie the Pooh for hurting Xi's feelings...

[–] boredtortoise@lemm.ee 19 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Some bootlicker said the Chinese are racist for that meme

[–] DragonTypeWyvern@midwest.social 1 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

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.

[–] Semi_Hemi_Demigod@lemmy.world 63 points 2 weeks ago
[–] randoogle@sh.itjust.works 47 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 children)

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?

[–] atzanteol@sh.itjust.works 6 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

It's an executive branch department of which the president is the head.

[–] randoogle@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 week ago (1 children)

No, that's reductive BS. The GSA is an independent agency of the federal government:

[T]he 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.

[–] atzanteol@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Who appoints the leadership?

[–] randoogle@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

The president does. Who makes the laws (including the law creating this department)?

[–] atzanteol@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 week ago

The president does

Which is the answer to the question "Is some of the GSA leadership loyal to Trump?"

[–] thatradomguy@lemmy.world 46 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)
[–] vonbaronhans@midwest.social 15 points 2 weeks ago

That is about as clear cut an example of political censorship as there could possibly be.

[–] AFaithfulNihilist@lemmy.world 13 points 2 weeks ago

This is Winnie the Pooh stuff.

[–] CosmicTurtle0@lemmy.dbzer0.com 44 points 2 weeks ago (3 children)

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.

[–] RQG@lemmy.world 35 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

In the article it says it's removed from the video conference software used internally. The admins apparently can do it there.

[–] CosmicTurtle0@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 points 2 weeks ago

Ah thanks for the clarification. The slack part bit was at the end. It's too early in the morning.

[–] TranquilTurbulence@lemmy.zip 7 points 2 weeks ago

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.

[–] T156@lemmy.world 1 points 2 weeks ago

Word filter?

[–] Paradux@lemm.ee 41 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

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.

[–] Viking_Hippie@lemmy.dbzer0.com 35 points 2 weeks ago

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

[–] can@sh.itjust.works 35 points 2 weeks ago

Showing profound levels of insecurity here.

[–] Mouselemming@sh.itjust.works 32 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

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

[–] WhatAmLemmy@lemmy.world 5 points 2 weeks ago

👨‍🚀🔫👨‍🚀

[–] Snapz@lemmy.world 27 points 2 weeks ago

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

[–] errer@lemmy.world 26 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)
[–] ramenshaman@lemmy.world 17 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)
[–] kSPvhmTOlwvMd7Y7E@lemmy.world 3 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

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

[–] Tehbaz@lemmy.wtf 22 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

You get what you vote for America. Now the morons are running the asylum.

[–] DragonTypeWyvern@midwest.social 2 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)
  • 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

[–] Donjuanme@lemmy.world 18 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Okay. Why? Why have emojis at all? Why just ban one?

Bunch of spoons.

[–] randoogle@sh.itjust.works 24 points 2 weeks ago

They use the spoon as a protest against the "fork in the road" email.

[–] MajorHavoc@programming.dev 11 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)
[–] HootinNHollerin@lemmy.dbzer0.com 10 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)
[–] dependencyinjection@discuss.tchncs.de 4 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)
[–] adespoton@lemmy.ca 3 points 2 weeks ago

All cutlery is rather inedible as soup.

[–] toynbee@lemmy.world 2 points 2 weeks ago

I eat my peas with honey, I've done it all my life; it makes them taste quite funny, but it keeps them on my knife.

[–] SuiXi3D@fedia.io 2 points 2 weeks ago

So are 🔫.

[–] muntedcrocodile@lemm.ee 9 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)
[–] FuglyDuck@lemmy.world 7 points 2 weeks ago

🥄🥣🍴🗡️🍽️🍴

[–] laurelraven@lemmy.zip 2 points 1 week ago

They throw out the spoons, the workers will have to turn to knives

[–] billwashere@lemmy.world 1 points 2 weeks ago