X replaces water pistol emoji with handgun just days after assassination attempt on Trump

Days after an assassination attempt on former US President Donald Trump at an open-air rally, X (formerly Twitter) has replaced the water pistol emoji with a handgun. The update can, for the moment, be seen if posts are made from the web browser and not through the app.

An employee of X (uses the handle @yacineMTB) posted on the platform that “the gun emoji was returned back into its rightful form: an M1911”. The update is a departure among tech companies as other emoji vendors pivoted away from firearm imagery between 2016 and 2018.