Government agency removes spoon emoji from work platform amid protests | TechCrunch
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According to a New York Times report, on Thursday, the U.S. government's General Services Administration (GSA) removed the spoon emoji as an option that

According to a New York Times report, on Thursday, the U.S. government’s General Services Administration (GSA) removed the spoon emoji as an option that users of its videoconferencing platform can select to express themselves.

The move comes a day after workers embraced the digital cutlery to protest the Trump administration’s “Fork in the Road” resignation offer.

    • jimmux@programming.dev
      6·
      1 day ago

      There really should be a pitchfork emoji.

      If they want forks, they’ll get forks. Just not in the road.

      Edit: I should have said, “fork in the chode”. It was right there.

  • Jeena@piefed.jeena.netEnglish
    752·
    2 days ago

    From the outside it’s funny to see how fast America is becoming like China. But I feel for you guys, and in the long run nothing is funny about it, only in the short.

    • sudo@programming.dev
      3815·
      2 days ago

      China for all its faults has a functional government, growing economy and rule of law is strictly enforced. Would we be so lucky to become like China. The US is spiraling towards becoming like post soviet Russia.

      • untorquer@lemmy.world
        62·
        2 days ago

        Comparing one authoritarian country to another and having an answer other than “both are bad”… I guess at least China has socialized medicine so you won’t die from ingesting boot polish.

        • sudo@programming.dev
          7·
          2 days ago

          Comparing one authoritarian country to another and having an answer other than “both are bad”

          Russia, China, Saudi Arabia, Israel are all “authoritarian” but wildly different societies. Merely labeling them as “authoritarian” and leaving it at that is short circuiting your reasoning skills.

          • Doorbook@lemmy.world
            31·
            2 days ago

            One is a kingdom where everyone knows who is the king and who they are listening to.

            The rest fake democracy, where you vote for a party and then find out it is run by some rich dude.

            • sudo@programming.dev
              21·
              2 days ago

              where you vote for a party and then find out it is run by some rich dude.

              That’s how neither of the last three work. To keep it short the last three are:

              • settler colonial state where genocide has popular support.
              • mafia-state where reality doesn’t matter
              • Indirect democracy dominated by a party particing Democratic-Centralism.

              What your described is something like France and Bernard Arnault. There’s many like this but that’s your normal freedom loving democracy™.

              edit: who is the secret rich dude running Russia and China if its not Putin and Xi? 🤣

  • meowmeowbeanz@sh.itjust.works
    261·
    2 days ago

    Oh splendid, the spoon gestapo’s here—scrubbing dissent one forking emoji at a time. Musk-Trump synergy in full clown mode: delete the 🥄, bury the evidence, pretend the resistance never happened.

    Imagine feeling threatened by a utensil. These chuckleheads nuked spoons faster than a toddler bans broccoli. ”Fork in the Road”? More like ”Fork You”—but labor’s serving petty defiance with a side of Slack rebellion.

    Keep licking that boot, boys. When your dystopian flowchart includes emoji purges, maybe the problem isn’t the spoons—it’s the rotted system they’re scooping out. My status? Still a shovel.

    • floofloof@lemmy.caEnglish
      13·
      2 days ago

      If no one is willing or able to defend constitutional rights, they don’t really exist any more. I hope there are legal cases being prepared at least, to challenge all this new censorship.

    • tal@lemmy.todayEnglish
      7·
      2 days ago

      When the government is acting as an employer, they mostly aren’t constrained by the First Amendment in the way that they are when acting as the government.

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_free_speech_exceptions

      Restrictions based on special capacity of government

      As employer

      The government is not permitted to fire an employee based on the employee’s speech if three criteria are met: the speech addresses a matter of public concern; the speech is not made pursuant to the employee’s job duties, but rather the speech is made in the employee’s capacity as a citizen; and the damage inflicted on the government by the speech does not outweigh the value of the speech to the employee and the public. Specifically, speech is “treated as a matter of public concern” by reference to the “content, form, and context of a given statement”. The exception with regards to balancing the harm of a statement and the value of the statement (the Pickering test) is done by considering the degree to which the speech either interferes with close working relationships, disrupts the office, or even has the potential to do either.

      Most on-the-job speech is probably going to fail the “pursuant to the employee’s job duties” test.