If a tweet contains an emoji, should I include the emoji when I use the text of the tweet as a title?

Note: This post relates to content in the eighth edition of the MLA Handbook. For up-to-date guidance, see the ninth edition of the MLA Handbook.

Emojis do not need to be included in the titles of tweets. If the emoji is important to the meaning of the tweet, you should describe the emoji in your prose. If the tweet’s text is composed solely of the emoji itself, its title in the works-cited list should be a generic description of the emoji (MLA Handbook 28–29). The following provides an example:

One of the most retweeted tweets of all time is a video of one of the members of the K-pop group BTS (“List”). The text of the tweet is a lone microphone emoji (@BTS_twt).

Works Cited

@BTS_twt. Microphone emoji. Twitter, 27 Feb. 2018, twitter.com/BTS_twt/status/968572393718407168.

“List of Most-Retweeted Tweets.” Wikipedia, 1 Feb. 2019, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_most-retweeted_tweets.

MLA Handbook. 8th ed., Modern Language Association of America, 2016.