WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Senator Angus King today applauded an announcement from the Unicode Consortium that it will include a new lobster emoji in the 2018 release of its standard character set. The new emoji will be available for use on social media platforms and smartphones later this year.

In September 2017, Senator King wrote to the Unicode Consortium requesting it include the lobster emoji in its standard character set, citing its significant impact on Maine's culture and economy. Senator King referenced a formal proposal drafted by a native Mainer and also cited that a #NoLobsterEmoji search on social media reveals thousands of examples of likely users of the new character. The momentum for a lobster emoji has been on a roll ever since.

The Unicode Consortium is a non-profit, non-governmental organization that manages the standard set of characters (e.g., letters, numbers, symbols, emoji) that are used by most major websites, applications, and operating systems. The Consortium annually updates the Unicode Standard, and invites public proposals for new additions.