Cutting-Edge Electronic Evidence Issues | ABA

Wordless communications, such as emoticons, emojis, GIFs, memes and the like, have evolved into the mainstream in social networking and other electronic communication. As a result, they have become more prevalent in evidentiary law, and cases are citing them more often. It all began with the “emoticon,” a combination of typed keyboard characters used to represent a stylized face meant to convey the writer’s tone. Emoticons have been around as long as typewriters, and may even go back as far as 1862: A transcript of a speech by President Abraham Lincoln, published in an issue of the New York Times, includes what some say is a winking face emoticon.

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