[Beldin]

Interestingly, on my phone the so-called flag is not a flag at all, but "US" in outline.

So python behaves as expected: the 2 character string, when reversed, becomes "SU". Similar stuff happens with the other "flag" strings.

I'm sure emojis in my phone are outdated. I'm not sure how that affects whether I see a flag or letters.

[pilsetnieks]

Thankfully, there isn't an assigned ISO 3166-1 2-letter country code for SU currently; people may have interesting reactions seeing what happens when reversing a US flag emoji if there were.

[easrng]

If this was 1990 (and we somehow had the current emoji standard) SU would be the USSR flag.

[kingcharles]

Out of interest, what phone and browser? The only platform I've seen that doesn't render the flags is Windows.

[Beldin]

An android phone from 2014, with a year out of date chrome.

To update chrome, I'd have to give it permission to access my contacts. That ain't happening. (Phone OS is too old for per-app permissions)