Disable Emojis (GDPR friendly)

This plugin disables the WordPress emoji functionality, removing unnecessary code bloat that adds support for emojis in older browsers.

What it does

• Removes the emoji detection script from wp_head and the admin
• Removes emoji styles from wp_print_styles and admin
• Removes emoji DNS prefetching, preventing connections to s.w.org
• Removes the wpemoji TinyMCE plugin
• Strips emoji CDN hostname from DNS prefetch hints

Performance & Privacy

Emojis will still display in modern browsers that have built-in support. This plugin simply removes the extra HTTP requests and JavaScript overhead for browsers that don’t need it. Additionally, it prevents DNS prefetching to WordPress.org’s emoji CDN, improving privacy.

Note: Emoticons like :) will continue to work as expected.

Requirements

• PHP 7.4+
• WordPress 5.0+

GDPR compliancy

This plugin does not send any data to external servers. It disables DNS prefetching of emojis within WordPress, which should ensure improved privacy. To determine if your site is GDPR compliant, please seek legal advice. I have done my best to ensure the plugin is 100% GDPR compliant, but I am not a lawyer so cannot guarantee anything.

Architecture

The plugin uses:

Quality

All code uses declare(strict_types=1) and follows PSR-12. The plugin runs the following tooling:

• PHP_CodeSniffer (run via composer phpcs) — sniffs for PSR-12 violations
• PHP-CS-Fixer (run via composer cs) — dry-run style check
• PHPStan at level 6 (run via composer phpstan) — static analysis

Standard installation

1. Upload the disable-emojis folder to /wp-content/plugins/, or install via the WordPress plugin installer
2. Activate the plugin through the Plugins screen in WordPress
3. Done! Emoji bloat is automatically removed.

Composer installation

If your site uses Composer for dependency management:

composer require ryanhellyer/disable-emojiis

Visit the Disable Emojis plugin page for more information.