News of this emoji revisionism spread for the same reason so many of Gen Z’s pronouncements do: Young adults, speaking internet with native-language ease, have an air of authority. But the news also spread because it was a warning of sorts about online communication at large. The double-edged 👍 meant that you could mean “yes” or “sounds great” while saying “no,” or even 🖕. In online conversations, you can think you’ve said one thing and be read as having said another. Some have argued that the internet is creating a new kind of Babel. Here, in a cheerfully cartoonish form, were intimations of just that. Different groups of internet users—in this case, generations—can speak the same language and a different one.