Chinese social network companies began to take away the smoking emoji(表情符号) from their products to support China's new indoor smoking ban(禁烟令).

    The smoking emoji usually s{#blank#}1{#/blank#} for the feeling of “cool” or “relaxed” in many apps before. Since the new ban was announced, China's technology companies have been a{#blank#}2{#/blank#} to take this kind of emoji away.

    “Smoking is not cool,” said Zhang Jianshu, head of the Beijing Tobacco Control Association. “It's not p{#blank#}3{#/blank#}to take smoking as being cool”. He pointed out that the major social network users are younger people, who were much e{#blank#}4{#/blank#} to be influenced.

    In response, Sina Weibo took away the emoji of a smoker in September on its smart phone apps and c{#blank#}5{#/blank#} Two months later, Tencent followed Weibo's footsteps on November 6, 2017 to change the smoking emoji w{#blank#}6{#/blank#} a green leaf. However, the action was only taken on QQ's mobile app. QQ on PC still r{#blank#}7{#/blank#} the same. Tencent's another popular social app, Wechat, has also been required to change the emoji.

    China is home to 300 million smokers and produces the world's l{#blank#}8{#/blank#} number of cigarettes. It is reported that about 27.7% people s{#blank#}9{#/blank#}in China in 2017, according to the government. Zhang said, taking the smoking emoji away was to prevent it spreading the wrong i{#blank#}10{#/blank#} among the public.

The BTAC hopes to use the social network to make more people develop a healthier lifestyle.