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Google has been blasted by anti-vegan campaigners, after it removed the egg from its salad emoji in a bid to make it conform to the unicode description.
The change is one of a host of alterations the tech giant is editing for the Android P Beta 2 software update, which is due to come out this Summer.
Other changes Google is making include introducing emojis that represent people with grey, red, curly, or no hair.
Salad
UX Manager for Google emoji, Jennifer Daniel, shared an image of the new vegan-friendly salad on Twitter.
She joked: “There’s big talk about inclusion and diversity at Google so if you need any evidence of Google is making this priority may I direct your attention to the emoji – we’ve removed the egg in Android P beta 2, making this a more inclusive vegan salad.”
Speaking later about the salad emoji, Daniel added: “Just want to clarify that the goal of salad emoji redesign was to create an image more faithful to unicode’s description – ‘a bowl of healthy salad, containing lettuce, tomato, and other salad items such as cucumber’. Bon appetite!”
‘Warped ideology’
Some people are very unhappy about the change: Tim Bonner, Chief Executive of pro-bloodsport group the Countryside Alliance, told The Telegraph that opposition to people eating animal products is ‘utter insanity’.
He said: “It’s utterly ridiculous that a company like Google is bending to the warped ideology of a tiny number of vegan activists.
“We entirely understand that some people don’t want to eat meat or animal problems but getting upset about the fact that other people might want to eat an egg is utter insanity.”
‘Missing out’
The British Egg Industry Council, which represents British egg producers, told The Register how sad it is that people are ‘missing out’ now a picture of a salad doesn’t feature an egg anymore.
The spokesperson said: “Are the people at Google cracking up? We completely understand that vegans choose not to eat eggs, but in the UK egg sales are up by almost five percent and many people love them, so it seems a shame for the majority to be missing out due to concern for offending one group.
“Eggs are the perfect salad accompaniment for non-vegans – full of protein, vitamins and minerals, as well as being delicious.”
