Realitysonline.id | Recently, news broke that a Canadian farmer was fined US$61,000, or IDR 934 million, for using a thumbs-up emoji in response to a message.
Chris Achter, a farmer from Saskatchewan, Canada, was found guilty of breaching his contractual obligations and ordered to pay a fine by the judge.
It all started when Chris’ legal dispute resulted in the failure to deliver 86 tonnes of hemp that was due to be purchased by Kent Mickleborough in 2021.
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Mickleborough eventually filed a lawsuit after discussing a potential purchase with Chris over the phone and revealing his intention to buy hemp in November last year.
Reported by LBC News, Mickleborough sent a draft contact to Chris via text message saying “please confirm our contract”.
Based on his response, he also replied with a thumbs-up emoji. However, in reality, he did not meet the deadline.
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Chris also argued that the emoji he used was just a receipt. In his oath, Chris also stated that the thumbs-up emoji only indicated that he had accepted the hemp contract, but did not signify his agreement to the terms of the contract.
Unlike Mickleborough, he argued that he had already signed a contract with Chris from a text message.
Then he believed the emoji was a confirmation of their agreement.
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Judge Timothy ruled that the agreement was a provision of the contract.
In the judge’s decision, the definition of emoji as reported by Dictionary.com states that it can be used to express approval, confirmation or encouragement in digital communication.
“Professional communicator. General music practitioner. Passionate organizer. Evil twitter fan.”