cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/1255003
A Canadian judge has ruled that the popular “thumbs-up” emoji not only can be used as a contract agreement, but is just as valid as an actual signature. The Saskatchewan-based judge made the ruling on the grounds that the courts must adapt to the “new reality” of how people communicate, as originally reported by The Guardian.
This article references another article: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jul/06/canada-judge-thumbs-up-emoji-sign-contract
Apparently the message was an image of the contract and “please confirm flax contract”. Seems like the most likely interpretation of the 👍 is agreeing to the contract, not confirming receipt.
And the farmer had done the same with other contacts multiple times before.
Ah, well then yeah he should have been more explicit, or simply not replied.
Exactly. But I think the farmer actually did want to agree and lock in the price of the flax.
Only reason they were looking for a way out was because flax had skyrocketed and they wanted to sell to someone else.
Three times prior they replied with “Looks good,” “Ok” and “Yup.”, and then delivered the flax per the contract. It was only when the price went up they wanted to say they were not agreeing to it.
In either case the judge was pretty specific that this was not a precedent for the thumbs up emoji, but just that in this particular case it sure looked like consent based on past actions.