Island recognised with its own flag emoji

The Isle of Sark will shortly get its own flag emoji.

Unicode Consortium made the announcement in July but the flag will appear as and when platforms like Google, Facebook, X, Android and ioS update their emojis.

The Unicode 16.0 release will also feature seven other new additions.

The Sark flag was originally commissioned in 1938 by Dame of Sark, Sybil Hathaway, but did not receive Royal Grant of Arms until 2020.

The government's Chief Pleas Online Identity (Special) Committee said: "This is an important step to confirming Sark’s identity online in today’s connected world."

Speaker of Chief Pleas, Paul Armorgie, said: "Having a good online profile in the global cybersphere is vital for a small community like Sark in areas such as tourism."

The smallest of the four main Channel Islands, Sark is part of the Bailiwick of Guernsey and located some 80 miles (128km) from the south coast of England.

Its first official census in 52 years, carried out in 2023, put the island's population at 562.

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