In version 4.2, WordPress added emoji support automatically. For those sites already using emoji plugins or styles it caused a number of issues. For those sites that don’t use emoji it’s an unnecessary script adding (albeit miniscule) load time.
You don’t need a plugin to remove this code. Just add the following code into your child theme functions.php file:
// Remove WP emoji in header remove_action('wp_head', 'print_emoji_detection_script', 7); remove_action('wp_print_styles', 'print_emoji_styles'); remove_action( 'admin_print_scripts', 'print_emoji_detection_script' ); remove_action( 'admin_print_styles', 'print_emoji_styles' );