No Words Needed? Emojis as Evidence in Judicial Proceedings

Emojis have become an integral part of our daily communications. Through them, we express our emotions, complete the content of messages, qualify our words and, sometimes, we completely replace the text. It has not taken long for these pictograms to move from the keyboards of our devices to the courts. And the fact is that, not so long ago, the court rulings have been taking emojis into account to resolve both civil and criminal proceedings. Thus, the aim of this paper is to analyse what role emojis are playing as evidence, what problems and doubts are arising in practice and what challenges we will have to face in the future.