Many users are wondering about the juice box emoji meaning since there have been reports of the seemingly innocent icon being banned on TikTok. The juice box emoticon, which features a green box with a picture of a red apple on the front and a straw coming out of top, has been used more frequently on social media, be it TikTok or X (formerly Twitter). Otherwise known simply as the juice emoji, it was added as part of the standard Unicode Emoji in 2019, but many have since turned the icon into a reference for something else. Here’s an explanation of why the juice box emoji has seemingly been banned on TikTok.
Why has TikTok reportedly banned the juice box emoji?
An alternate meaning of the juice box emoji is a reference to “Jews,” which is phonetically similar to “juice.”
According to the ADL, this icon can be used as a negative code word for “Jews” or “Jewish,” and can be used by people “espousing demonizing rhetoric about the Jewish people while evading content moderation.” It says that the image of the juice box has been used in merchandise, memes, and social media posts that are antisemitic.
Various posts on social media say that this is why TikTok has begun banning the emoji on the platform, showing purported screenshots of content moderation by users who have posted the juice box as a comment. Oddly, these screenshots show that the reason for the violation is that the emoji is in reference to “alcohol, tobacco, and drugs.”
The phonetic similarity between “juice” and “Jews” has been used as the basis of jokes in film and television. In one episode of Bojack Horseman, the titular character visits the home of Herb and has a discussion about the popularity of the Vitamix blender, which leads Herb to comment that “juice controls the media.” Confusion between the two words was also used as an off-color joke in the HBO series Deadwood.
