Binance Unveils, Quickly Abandons Swastika-Like Twitter Emoji

Binance unveiled its new Twitter emoji Wednesday, and soon took it down after users pointed out its resemblance to a swastika.

The emoji, known as a hashflag in Twitter parlance, shared a resemblance with the Hindu swastika, a sign of good luck, but perhaps chiefly known in the Western world for its infamous appropriation by the Nazi party.

After responses of shock over the new branding, Binance deleted its tweets with the emoji, as did CEO Changpeng Zhao. In a tweet, the exchange said a different hashflag would roll out imminently.

“Well that was obviously really embarrassing,” the world’s largest crypto exchange tweeted hours after the reveal.

“We’re not sure how that emoji got through several layers of review without anyone noticing,” the tweet continued.

The faux pas, which one tipster pointed out coincided with Adolf Hitler’s birthday, isn’t the first time Binance has caught flak for tweets perceived as insensitive to the Jewish community.

In November 2017 it announced it would distribute “GAS” tokens by using a banner ad that prominently displayed a six-pointed star, the same shape as the Star of David. Binance deleted that tweet Wednesday amid the swastika emoji fallout.

Binance created the emoji with Twitter’s hashtag feature. These hashflags display a brand’s emoji anytime users tweet that brand’s hashtag. In this case, the emoji would appear next to #Binance or #BNB.

Branded hashflags can cost upwards of $1 million.