[thread]

I can think of only country whose flag change since @Unicode introduced flags around 2008: Burma in 2010. This is probably borderline, because back in 2008 only a few flags were defined.

@Evertype @anshumanpandey_ @CodepointsNet https://twitter.com/Belsat_TV/status/1298246858951798785

I've been wondering: what happens to flag emojis if a country changes its flag? As far as I know, this hasn't happened in ten years, but generally, it happens more often than a lot of people realize.

Now that the protestors in #Belarus are mostly waving the white-red-white flag, it may become replace the red-green flag as the official one in the foreseeable future. And @Telegram may be providing the first answer to my question.

For some time, Telegram has been auto-converting some emojis to animations, and now its founder @durov, who has expressed open support for the protests, made the animation for the Belarus flag appear as a white-red-white flag.

So, of course Telegram's answer is very politically charged, but then all flags are.

More importantly:
* It's not actually a character, but an auto-conversion.
* It only works in one app.
* It probably auto-converts older appearances of the flag.

And of course, it doesn't provide a solution for people who, for whatever reason, want the red-green flag to appear.

Wikipedia solves it by not using emojis, but templates that can specify a generic flag of a country or a particular flag from a particular time, and then shows a small image.

(This only works in Wikipedia in some languages; explaining why would be too long.)

But of course, Wikipedia has very flexible and customizable software, and it's not a rigid global standard like Unicode.

So, Telegram's answer is super-partial. But maybe it will raise the question with Unicode.

FINALLY, it's quite possible that this whole thread is pointless, and that the Unicode standard already has a good solution for this and I just don't know it!

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