No current emoji says “I forgive you.”
The forgivemoji campaign, launched in Finland this Autumn, is crowdsourcing ideas for an emoji to be used for forgiving. The winning emoji will be introduced to the official Unicode collection at the end of this year.
The ultimate goal of the Forgivemoji campaign is to get forgivemoji added to the list of emojis. In November this year, the campaign team will decide on the best idea and send it to the Unicode Consortium. Unicode manages the emoji list and provides a framework for services and device manufacturers to use them.
Unicode updates its emoji list once a year. In 2019, Unicode announced they would be adding 59 new emojis to the selection, with variations totaling at 230. The process of introducing a new emoji can take two years, and the application must include an explanation for the use and frequency of the emoji.
On the campaign’s website www.forgivemoji.com, visitors can vote from a selection of emoji designs or submit their own artwork and sketches. The original idea for the forgivemoji campaign came from a surprising source – The Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland.
Partnering with a Nobel peace laureate
To kickstart the campaign, the ELCF partnered with various charitable and peace-building organizations, including Felm, Finn Church Aid, Helsinki Deaconess Foundation, and the National Movement for Reconciliation.
Another important partner is the Crisis Management Initiative CMI, the conflict-resolving organization founded by former President of Finland and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Mr. Martti Ahtisaari.
You can still join the campaign: #forgivemoji or www.forgivemoji.com