From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or ...

We're all familiar with the smiley emoticon, and its power to add levity, flirtation, and occasionally passive-aggression to our texts, chats, and e-mails. But according to researchers, our brains ...

The word ‘iconic’ is overused – but what’s more iconic than the smiley? Today, we know it as the unmistakable symbol of raving, expressing the simple joy of hitting the dancefloor, together as one.

Editor’s Note: This article was published in partnership with Artsy, the global platform for discovering and collecting art. The original article can be seen here. In a video installation by James ...

Twenty-five years ago, Carnegie Mellon University professor Scott E. Fahlman says, he was the first to use three keystrokes — a colon followed by a hyphen and a parenthesis — as a horizontal "smiley ...

The man who owns the rights to the iconic "smiley face" symbol has said that only bringing out small numbers of emojis each year limits people's freedom of speech online. Nicolas Loufrani, CEO of The ...

Emotion is something that is incredibly difficult to get across in a digital format. Aside from ending your texts with “lol” to appear less threatening, or ending a tweet with “/s” to indicate sarcasm ...

Facebook lets you add special characters such as smileys, hearts and diamonds by using the "Alt" key codes that are built into Windows. There are several hundred special characters that you can choose ...

When Harvey Ross Ball was hired by an insurance company to create a morale-boosting symbol in 1963, neither party would realize the sensational mark they had landed upon. Fast forward to the present ...

Nicolas Loufrani, CEO of the Smiley Company, has sharp features, and a sharper grin. I find him in his London office wearing grey pin-striped dungarees, beaming energetically, clutching a poster that ...

Editor’s Note: This article was published in partnership with Artsy, the global platform for discovering and collecting art. The original article can be seen here. In a video installation by James ...