
Beijing Tobacco Control Association Applauded Weibo’s Withdrawal of Smoking Emoji
Published:September 14, 2017
Reading Time:3 min read
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Weibo withdrew the emoji that represents “cool” from the emoji stickers of its international version, indicating the phase-out of “smoking emoji” from Weibo’s m...
Weibo withdrew the emoji that represents “cool” from the emoji stickers of its international version, indicating the phase-out of “smoking emoji” from Weibo’s mobile client and PC client. Beijing Tobacco Control Association (BTCA) applauded this act and urged Tencent to follow suit as soon as possible.
“Ku” originated from “cool” of foreign culture, meaning “awesome, fashionable, or enviable”. Yet, Zhang Jianshu, the chairman of BTCA, said: “Smoking is not cool at all, and any attempt to advertise that smoking is cool is improper. We appreciate Weibo’s withdrawal of the smoking emoji.”
This article originally appeared in Beijing Youth Daily and was translated by Pandaily.
Click here to read the original Chinese article.