Remove all traces of emoji from a text file.

remove-emoji.py

#!/usr/bin/env python
"""
Remove emoji from a text file and print it to stdout.

Usage
-----

    python remove-emoji.py input.txt > output.txt

"""
import re
import sys

# https://stackoverflow.com/a/49146722/330558
def remove_emoji(string):
    emoji_pattern = re.compile("["
                           u"\U0001F600-\U0001F64F"  # emoticons
                           u"\U0001F300-\U0001F5FF"  # symbols & pictographs
                           u"\U0001F680-\U0001F6FF"  # transport & map symbols
                           u"\U0001F1E0-\U0001F1FF"  # flags (iOS)
                           u"\U00002702-\U000027B0"
                           u"\U000024C2-\U0001F251"
                           "]+", flags=re.UNICODE)
    return emoji_pattern.sub(r'', string)

if __name__ == '__main__':
    text = open(sys.argv[1]).read()
    text = remove_emoji(text)
    print(text)