Chinese social network companies began to take away the smoking emoji(表情符号) from their products to support China's new indoor smoking ban(禁烟令).
The smoking emoji usually s for the feeling of “cool” or “relaxed” in many apps before. Since the new ban was announced, China's technology companies have been a to take this kind of emoji away.
“Smoking is not cool,” said Zhang Jianshu, head of the Beijing Tobacco Control Association. “It's not pto take smoking as being cool”. He pointed out that the major social network users are younger people, who were much e to be influenced.
In response, Sina Weibo took away the emoji of a smoker in September on its smart phone apps and c Two months later, Tencent followed Weibo's footsteps on November 6, 2017 to change the smoking emoji w a green leaf. However, the action was only taken on QQ's mobile app. QQ on PC still r the same. Tencent's another popular social app, Wechat, has also been required to change the emoji.
China is home to 300 million smokers and produces the world's l number of cigarettes. It is reported that about 27.7% people sin China in 2017, according to the government. Zhang said, taking the smoking emoji away was to prevent it spreading the wrong i among the public.
The BTAC hopes to use the social network to make more people develop a healthier lifestyle.
