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Having learned a good representation for emoji, we can begin to ask questions about similarity. Namely, for a given emoji, what English words are semantically similar? For each emoji, we compute the “angle” (equivalently the cosine similarity) between it and other words. Words with a small angle are said to be similar and provide a natural, English-language translation for that emoji.

Using our algorithm, we find that many of our popular emoji have meanings in-line with early internet slang:

It seems that the most popular emoji have similar semantics to words like “lol/hehe” (

Many clusters emerge: food emoji on the left, opposite the work emoji in the top right. Shoes (bottom right) are associated closely to handbags while bathing suits are closer to the water and marine animals (top left). Alcoholic drinks (bottom left) cluster together with bowling. Towards the center, we see a large clustering of facial expressions bordered by sadness, shock, laughter, happiness and coolness. As we travel downwards, we can see happy, love leading all the way the family and wedding emoji.

On Instagram, emoji are becoming a valid and near-universal method of expression in all languages. Emoji usage is shifting the people’s vocabulary on Instagram and becoming an important means of expression: their use is anti-correlated with internet slang like “lol” and “xoxo.”

It’s pretty rich that she’s profiting off her dorm room when her parents had to bribe her way in! In a Teen Vogue interview from September, Olivia seemed to shill for Amazon again, without disclosing her arrangement with the company.

The two beautiful, internet-famous daughters of a TV star who scammed their way into USC and continued to scam right on through it?

Google+ is a data mine. The unified login means Google can start tracking users' interests and behavior around the Web.

“The providers of social networks are responsible when their platforms are misused to spread hate crime or illegal false news,” German Justice Minister Heiko Maas said in a statement. The proposed law would apply only within German borders. But Maas said Wednesday he would press for similar measures across the European Union. A number of European countries have also sought to counter the fake-news scourge. The Czech Republic recently inaugurated a special unit charged with denouncing false reports. Should the German measure become law, however, experts say it would amount to the boldest step yet by a major Western nation to control social-media content. Depending on how obviously false or illegal a post is, companies would have as little as 24 hours to remove it.

In addition to fake news and hate speech, the draft bill would target posts seen as inciting terrorism or spreading child pornography. Officials have cited a surge of hate speech across the Internet as a major factor behind the rise of far-right violence in Germany, including arson attacks at refugee centers and assaults on police officers.

One of the companies most affected by the bill is Facebook, which has sought to sidestep such laws by taking voluntary measures to curb the spread of fake news. The company echoed concerns that the bill would wrongly foist upon corporations a level of decision-making on the legality of content that should instead reside with German courts.

Rather than setting a new standard, officials also say they are simply forcing social-media outlets to comply with existing laws governing hate speech and incitement in Germany. Incitement and defamation laws here are far broader than in the United States; for instance, laws on the books forbid defaming German leaders and make denial of the Holocaust a crime.