A Canadian judge has ruled that the popular “thumbs-up” emoji not only can be used as a contract agreement, but is just as valid as an actual signature. The Saskatchewan-based judge made the ruling on the grounds that the courts must adapt to the “new reality” of how people communicate, as originally reported by The Guardian.
What a bunch of horseshit. I can see a thumbs-up emoji being used as an explicit sign of confirmation, but even in the context, the farmer never indicated any willingness to sign the contract. Receiving a contract and signing a contract are two entirely different things.
On three prior occasions, the broker had sent a contract in the same way with basically the same vague “did you get it” language.
The farmers responded with “looks good,” “okay,” and “yup.” Every time, they delivered the flax. The only real difference was the move from “ok” to an emoji indicating the same sentiment. In a case like this, you have no choice but to go with who’s more likely to be right between two parties making their arguments, and it’s completely reasonable to side with the broker here.
The judge also explicitly stated that this is not a general decision for the use of the emoji and that it should be assessed on a case-by-case basis.
In this case the article is missing the crucial information that the farmer had used phrases such as “looks good”, “yup” and “ok” when agreeing to previous contracts. So the thumbs up was seen as a continuation of those, and not as a new agreement.