University issues actual guidance to students regarding emoji use for 'diverse audiences

Colorado State University is kindly requesting that its students default to using yellow emojis when addressing what they consider to be "diverse audiences," and ask that students also "avoid gendered emojis" whenever possible.

Why are they doing this?

The university's latest iteration of their social media guide, issued on Sept. 28, encourages student organizations to make their social media pages more diversity-friendly by engaging in the castration and depersonalization of internet emojis, such as smiley faces and the like.

The guide, which was titled "10 Ways to Make Your Social Media Channels More Inclusive," is a "quick guide for inclusive communications" for students.

The publication encourages students and student organizations to "[u]se inclusive pronouns," such as "they, them, or theirs," and to "[u]se the yellow emojis when addressing a diverse audience."

Other recommendations include avoiding "gendered emojis when possible." Instead, it's recommended that organizations "use one of the variations of the yellow smiley faces or object emojis," and when interacting with others on social media, to avoid assuming anything about gender or gender identity based on first names.

The guide also says that as "social media managers and marketers," the power of social media is a "power [that] comes with great responsibility."

Anything else?

Ethan Burshek, who is chairman of Young Americans for Liberty at the school, said that the new social media recommendations are "absurd" and "overly restrictive"  in a statement to Campus Reform.

"[Colorado State University] has absolutely no control over its student[s] or social media[,] and as far as I know they don't even check it," Burshek told the outlet. "It's entirely a farce. It's just a virtue signal that they're putting out."

He also complained that the shifting parameters of what is appropriate is bogus.

"A month ago the progressives were telling us that the yellow emojis represented white people, and now they're saying it's the generic one," he explained. "I don't think anyone actually cares what emojis you use."

Burshek noted that he's willing to give the school the benefit of the doubt, in any case.

"CSU is very open to free speech," he explained. "They’ll release speech codes that have suggestions, but there’s no one who’s actually going to sanction you for saying anything."

(H/T: Campus Reform)