Tencent pulls sex slave emoji

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Chinese tech giant Tencent has apologized for its circulation of emoji featuring wartime sex slaves on instant messaging platform QQ.

'Comfort women' emoji /Photo from Sina Weibo

Tencent recently made available a series of emoji based on images from Chinese documentary film “Twenty Two”, on Chinese women being forced into sex slavery by the Japanese military during World War II. They appeared with Chinese phrases such as "I'm really wronged" and "I'm lost".

The emoji have been removed from QQ and Tencent said on Tuesday that it would be more careful in future about its selection of such content.

Screenshot of the announcement on QQ

QQ also explained on its official Sina Weibo account that the emoji were produced by a third-party company named Biaoqing Yun.

“Twenty Two”, which screened in Chinese theaters this month, is named after the number of the former Chinese "comfort women" still alive at the time of its filming in 2014.

Chinese newspaper the People's Daily said in an editorial, "People have got used to light-hearted use of emoji to express unspoken sentiments. Gradually, we have become too accustomed to making fun of everything."