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ILY sign
ILY sign
from Wikipedia
The ILY is a common sign in ASL deaf culture meaning, "I Love You" (informal).

The ILY is a sign from American Sign Language which, as a gesture, has moved into the mainstream. Seen primarily in the United States and other Americanized countries, the sign originated among deaf schoolchildren using American Sign Language to create a sign from a combination of the signs for the letters I, L, and Y (I Love You).[1]

The sign is an informal expression of any of several positive feelings, ranging from general esteem to love, for the recipient of the sign. A similar-looking but unrelated variation in which the thumb is toward the palm appears in heavy metal music culture as a "horns" hand-sign (though the thumbs extended version is sometimes used) and in college football as a sign of support for various teams including the University of Texas. The University of Louisiana at Lafayette's Ragin' Cajuns Athletics uses the ILY sign to symbolize the initials of the university (UL).

History

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Deaf Heritage dates the origin of the ILY to 1905.[2] The sign received significant media exposure with Richard Dawson's use of the ILY in his sign off from each episode of the Family Feud, which he hosted from 1976 to 1985. Presidential candidate Jimmy Carter reportedly picked it up from a group of deaf supporters in the Midwest and, in 1977, during his Inauguration Day parade, flashed the ILY to a group of deaf people on the sidewalk.

The character U+1F91F 🤟 I LOVE YOU HAND SIGN was added to the Unicode standard in version 11.0, released June 2018.[3][4]

External videos
video icon Appeal to add ILY and other signs to Unicode, YouTube video

This followed a campaign to have several common signs added to the Unicode Character Set.[5]

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Gene Simmons showing the ILY sign at a fashion show, 2012

Popular 80s professional wrestler Jimmy Snuka would frequently flash the ILY sign with both hands during his matches and interviews, including while standing on the top rope before delivering his finishing move "Superfly Splash".[6]

Gene Simmons of the rock band Kiss has used the symbol in photoshoots, concerts and public appearances since 1974. He has stated in a television interviews that he was a Marvel comics fan, and was inspired by the Doctor Strange use of the symbol to use it himself in photoshoots. He later (by 1976 or earlier) had black gloves made that lacked index and pinky fingers so that even his raised open hand would emulate the ILY sign.[7]

The ending pose of the popular K-pop song "Boy with Luv" by BTS also incorporates this sign with all the members turning around and raising their right hands in this sign.

Throughout the K-pop song "Fancy", the members of the girl group Twice do this gesture when dancing.

The ILY sign is also a part of the choreography for the song "CASE 143" by Stray Kids (with "143" as a code for "I love you"). It's the title song of their EP MAXIDENT in which they are referencing love as a "maximum accident".

In 2025, Venezuelan footballer Reyes Barrios was arrested by ICE and deported to the Salvadoran Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT) after DHS declared him to be a member of the gang Tren de Aragua. In filings, it came out that this classification was due to him having made the ILY sign in a social media post (which they declare to be a gang sign), as well as having a Real Madrid tattoo.[8]

References

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Revisions and contributorsEdit on WikipediaRead on Wikipedia
from Grokipedia
The ILY sign is a gesture originating from American Sign Language (ASL) that compactly represents "I love you" by combining the fingerspelled letters I, L, and Y into one handshape: the index finger extended upward to signify "I," the thumb extended sideways with the index finger to form "L," the pinky finger raised for "Y," and the middle and ring fingers folded into the palm. This informal sign, distinct from the traditional ASL expressions for "love" (a squeezing motion near the heart) and "you" (pointing outward), emerged among deaf schoolchildren as a shorthand for affection and positive emotions beyond romantic love, such as friendship or general goodwill. Within Deaf culture, the ILY sign functions as a versatile, non-literal emblem of esteem, often employed in familial, relational, or communal contexts to convey sentiments like farewell, apology, or encouragement without the specificity of formal signs. Its adoption into mainstream hearing society, particularly , has amplified its visibility through uses in music performances, , and public displays, though this broader application sometimes prompts discussions in Deaf communities about cultural appropriation versus universal accessibility. Unlike similar gestures such as the "rock on" or "devil horns" hand sign—which extends only the index and pinky fingers without —the ILY explicitly incorporates the thumb to complete the alphabetic fusion, underscoring its linguistic roots in ASL .

Definition and Formation

Gesture Mechanics

The ILY sign is executed as a static, one-handed combining elements of the fingerspelled letters "I," "L," and "Y" in (ASL). The handshape involves extending the , , and pinky finger fully while tucking the middle and ring fingers against the palm, forming a configuration where the thumb and approximate an "L" shape adjacent to the upright pinky. This positioning ensures the extended digits are straight and separated, with the thumb positioned laterally to the rather than overlapping. The standard palm orientation positions the hand's palm facing outward, away from the signer and toward the recipient, with the extended fingers oriented upward in a neutral plane parallel to the signer's midline. For right-handed execution, the thumb typically points slightly leftward relative to the body when viewed from the front, maintaining overall vertical alignment of the index and pinky. Variations in orientation occur to convey directionality inherent to ASL , such as rotating the palm to face the signer when indicating self-reference or adjusting to point toward a specific individual or location for object focus. These adjustments preserve the core handshape while altering the palm's facing direction—options include inward (toward signer), sideways, or downward—without altering finger positions. Non-native signers commonly err by partially extending the middle or ring fingers instead of fully folding them, or by bending the pinky inward rather than keeping it rigidly outstretched, which can distort the sign's clarity and recognizability in demonstrations. Proper formation requires deliberate tension in the extended fingers to avoid such laxity, as observed in instructional resources emphasizing precise digit control for legibility.

Relation to ASL Alphabet

The ILY sign in (ASL) fuses elements of the fingerspelled letters "I," "L," and "Y" from the ASL manual alphabet into a single static handshape. The letter "I" is represented by extending the pinky finger with the other fingers folded; "L" by extending the thumb and perpendicularly while folding the remaining fingers; and "Y" by extending the thumb, , and pinky with the middle and ring fingers folded. In the ILY configuration, the thumb, , and pinky are simultaneously extended with the middle and ring fingers adducted to the palm, blending these alphabetic components into one efficient form. This derivation contrasts with sequential of "I-L-Y," which demands three successive hand positions and movements, whereas the ILY sign achieves the same referential meaning through a solitary, immobilized posture. This compression facilitates quicker articulation in conversational contexts, reflecting ASL's morphological in deriving lexical items from phonologically related primitives. Linguistic examinations of ASL identify the ILY handshape as phonologically affiliated with the "I," "L," and "Y" configurations, exemplifying creative where alphabetic initials are merged to form neologistic signs. Such processes underscore ASL's structural reliance on the manual alphabet as a foundational resource for sign innovation, distinct from etymologies.

Historical Origins

Emergence in Deaf Schoolchildren

The ILY sign developed among deaf schoolchildren in U.S. residential schools for the deaf during the early as a compact, informal blending the fingerspelled handshapes for "I," "L," and "Y" to abbreviate the phrase "I love you." This innovation arose playfully among peers, bypassing the need for sequential finger-spelling or separate formal signs for each word, reflecting the creative linguistic adaptations common in these isolated educational environments where deaf youth interacted intensively. Accounts in Jack R. Gannon's Deaf Heritage: A Narrative History of Deaf America attribute the sign's origin to around 1905, positioning it within the oral traditions and of deaf communities predating widespread hearing-world exposure. The gesture proliferated through intergenerational transmission in schools like those modeled after early institutions such as the , where older students taught novel signs to younger ones amid limited adult oversight of informal signing. However, anecdotal recollections from some early 20th-century residential school alumni indicate the sign was not universally observed during their enrollment, implying its initial emergence may have been localized or gained traction gradually within peer networks before broader documentation. This child-led evolution underscores the role of residential deaf education in fostering unique ASL variants, distinct from standardized adult lexicons, with etymological evidence rooting it firmly in pre-mainstream deaf cultural practices by the 1910s.

Pre-20th Century Precedents and Documentation

(ASL) traces its roots to (LSF), introduced to the in 1816 by , a deaf educator who accompanied from the National Institute for Deaf-Mutes in to establish the Connecticut Asylum for the Education and Instruction of Deaf and Dumb Persons (now ) in 1817. This foundational influence included LSF's one-handed manual alphabet, which features distinct configurations for letters such as "I" (pinky extended), "L" (thumb and index forming an L-shape), and "Y" (pinky and thumb extended with others folded). These alphabetic handshapes provided the raw components for potential lexical innovations in ASL, such as blending fingerspelled elements into compact, single-hand forms—a process observed in ASL's development but absent in documented LSF precedents for expressions of affection. In LSF, the sign for "" (amour) historically involved bilateral hand movements evoking embrace or proximity, differing markedly from any unilateral alphabetic fusion; etymological analyses trace it to cultural motifs like paired figures in medieval rather than letter combinations. No records indicate LSF employed a merged "I-L-Y" configuration for "" or equivalent phrases prior to ASL's divergence, as LSF favored holistic iconic gestures over English-initialized blends, a trait amplified in ASL through Anglo-American linguistic contact. Linguistic reconstructions prioritize such diachronic distinctions, revealing ASL's ILY as an emergent, informal synthesis enabled by the imported but not directly inherited. Pre-1900 documentation of sign language lexicons remains sparse, confined to educator manuscripts like those of Jean Massieu or early Gallaudet-era notes, which catalog basic vocabulary but omit specialized affective signs like a combined ILY; deaf periodicals, such as The Deaf-Mute's Friend (1860s onward), focused on and phonetics over gesture etymologies. This evidentiary gap underscores the ILY's likely status as an uncodified, community-driven invention post-establishment of ASL schools, rather than a formalized precedent from LSF or indigenous American signing systems. Oral histories within deaf communities, reconstructed via later ethnographies, reinforce this by attributing such efficiencies to pedagogical play rather than archival transmission. Claims of deeper antiquity, often amplified in non-academic narratives, lack substantiation against primary linguistic sources, which emphasize ASL's 19th-century hybridization without evidencing the specific ILY form.

Usage in Sign Language and Deaf Culture

Informal vs. Formal ASL Equivalents

The formal ASL equivalent for "I love you" involves sequentially signing ""—crossing open hands over the heart to evoke embracing oneself—followed by "you," executed by directly at the addressee, often with intensified facial expressions for emphasis. This structure adheres to ASL's grammatical principles, permitting modifications for intensity or context through non-manual markers like or head tilt. The ILY sign, by contrast, represents an initialized blend of fingerspelled letters, functioning as a casual rather than a phonologically integrated , akin to colloquial reductions in spoken languages. It conveys affectionate familiarity, such as in quick farewells or among close relations, but is deemed less precise for its departure from sequential signing norms. Community discussions among Deaf signers highlight its slang-like quality, suitable for succinct, friendly exchanges but insufficient for emotive or declarative depth, where the full phrase prevails. Some view it as , translating roughly to "luv ya" rather than profound commitment, prompting preference for traditional forms in structured or professional interactions to maintain linguistic clarity.

Contextual Applications and Variations

The ILY sign is employed in a static hold, with the handshape presented palm-outward near the chest or shoulder, to directly convey "I love you" in personal or intimate exchanges. This form maintains the combined fingerspelling elements without additional motion, emphasizing clarity in one-on-one communication. For affectionate departures, the sign incorporates a gentle waving motion from the wrist, transforming it into an "I love you, goodbye" gesture often used between parents and children or close companions. This variation softens the farewell, blending affection with parting without altering the core handshape. To intensify expression, particularly in group settings or toward collectives, signers may add a subtle shaking or wiggling of the handshape, broadening the sentiment to imply or appreciation for everyone present. Such emphasis avoids dilution of meaning while adapting to communal contexts, as observed in Deaf interactions. Beyond romantic intent, the ILY sign applies to familial affection, platonic friendships, and general positivity, functioning as a casual "love ya" among Deaf individuals. It underscores bonds without implying deeper romance, reflecting its versatility in everyday Deaf exchanges. The handshape remains standardized across ASL, with regional dialects exhibiting only minor differences in execution speed or slight palm orientation adjustments, preserving uniformity for recognition. These tweaks align with broader ASL variation patterns but do not compromise the sign's intelligibility.

Cultural and Symbolic Role

Evolution as a Broader Positive Symbol

Within , the ILY sign transcended its origins as a literal representation of "I love you"—formed by combining the fingerspelled letters I, L, and Y—to embody broader expressions of goodwill, solidarity, and communal affection by the mid-20th century. This generalization arose organically from the practical needs of communication, where a single, visually efficient could convey positive intent in diverse social contexts, such as farewells, apologies, or gestures of support, without implying romantic or strictly familial bonds. accounts from Deaf individuals emphasize its versatility as a marker of , akin to group symbols in other tight-knit communities, fostering unity independent of norms imposed by hearing society. The sign's role as a non-verbal unifier became evident in Deaf social practices, including gatherings and cultural events, where it signals mutual and shared heritage rather than personal devotion. For instance, it appears in celebratory contexts to affirm group cohesion, paralleling its use in everyday interactions like signing "goodbye ILY" or "much " equivalents, which prioritize relational over specificity. This evolution counters external romanticized interpretations by prioritizing empirical patterns in Deaf interactions, where the gesture's allows for contextual , enhancing its utility in visual-first environments. Cultural artifacts further illustrate this symbolic expansion, with the ILY handshape incorporated into jewelry, apparel, and items that celebrate Deaf resilience and interconnectedness, distinct from hearing-world appropriations. Such items, prevalent since at least the late , reflect causal reinforcement through repeated communal reinforcement, solidifying the sign as an emblem of esteem and positive affiliation within the DEAF-WORLD.

Significance in Deaf Identity and Community Practices

The ILY sign functions as a multifaceted within Deaf identity, encapsulating expressions of platonic , communal , and cultural self-affirmation that prioritize visual-gestural over spoken-language conventions. Developed through the innovative blending of ASL fingerspelled handshapes for "I," "L," and "Y," it represents a distinctly Deaf linguistic , enabling concise conveyance of positive intent without reliance on auditory or hearing-imposed verbal scripts. This origin underscores the community's capacity for endogenous symbol creation, fostering a sense of ownership in communication practices that resist assimilation into hearing norms. In everyday Deaf community interactions, the sign integrates into rituals of connection, such as casual farewells or group acknowledgments, where it signals mutual regard and in-group cohesion rather than romantic exclusivity. Deaf individuals often deploy it to affirm during gatherings or transitions, reinforcing collective resilience and shared amid external marginalization. Its versatility—extending to familial warmth or general positivity—highlights how Deaf practices emphasize relational harmony through unambiguous visual cues, distinct from the ambiguity of spoken "I love you" in hearing contexts. The sign's role in bolstering Deaf identity manifests in its invocation during moments of communal affirmation, where it symbolizes unity and in linguistic heritage against historical suppression of sign languages. By embodying self-defined values of expressiveness and reciprocity, ILY practices cultivate , enabling Deaf members to navigate social spaces on their terms and perpetuate cultural continuity independent of external validation. This internal reinforcement has sustained its prominence as a marker of Deaf distinctiveness, even as broader appropriations dilute its original contextual depth.

Media Representations and Celebrity Endorsements

The ILY sign entered mainstream media visibility in the 1970s via television game shows, particularly , where host routinely used it to express affection to contestants starting with the program's debut on July 12, 1976. This informal incorporation exposed millions of hearing viewers to the gesture through syndicated episodes broadcast across ABC and later networks. In the 1980s, the sign gained prominence through deaf actress Marlee Matlin's performances and public appearances, including her signing of "I love you" via ASL during the acceptance speech for in Children of a Lesser God on March 30, 1987. Matlin's Oscar win, the first for a deaf performer, highlighted ASL expressions like ILY in feature films centered on deaf experiences. Subsequent celebrity uses included former U.S. President displaying the sign in 2012, in 2015, and former President in a 2017 photograph shared by model . Digital adoption accelerated in the 2010s with the Consortium's approval of the "I Love You Hand Sign" (🤟) under Unicode 10.0, encoded as U+1F91F and released on June 20, 2017, enabling its widespread use in online media and texting platforms.

Mainstream Misinterpretations and Adaptations

In rock and heavy metal concert settings since the early 2000s, hearing performers and audiences have frequently substituted the ILY sign for the traditional "rock on" or "devil horns" gesture (🤘), overlooking the distinguishing extended thumb that differentiates it from the standard horns formation where the thumb tucks the middle fingers. This usage emerged as a perceived variant for expressing excitement or fandom, with examples including crowd interactions at festivals and band photoshoots, though it deviates from the horns' index-and-pinky-only structure popularized by Ronnie James Dio in the late 1970s. Musicians such as those in metal subgenres have employed it without referencing ASL origins, contributing to its informal spread in live performances. The ILY sign's digital adaptation accelerated with the 10.0 approval of the 🤟 "I Love You Hand Sign" in June 2017, enabling its integration into texting and for casual expressions of affection or "ILY" without the full kinesthetic or contextual elements of ASL signing. Platforms like and have seen it deployed in non-Deaf conversations to signify general positivity or , detached from linguistic grammar, as evidenced by trends post-emoji release. This shift prioritizes symbolic brevity over signed language precision, with hearing users often applying it universally across romantic, friendly, or emphatic intents. Cross-cultural observations indicate heightened global familiarity with the —boosted by ubiquity—yet frequent misattribution to horns-like symbols among hearing populations, reducing its fidelity to ASL intent as noted in educational analyses. For instance, hearing individuals commonly interpret the thumb-extended form as an aggressive or horn-adjacent variant rather than a literal "I love you," leading to diluted semantic accuracy in international contexts.

Controversies

Gene Simmons Trademark Dispute

In June 2017, , the bassist and co-lead singer of the rock band , filed a U.S. trademark application (Serial No. 87482739) with the United States Patent and Office for a hand gesture featuring the index and pinky fingers extended alongside the thumb, with the middle and ring fingers folded down and held by the thumb. claimed first use of the gesture in commerce on November 14, 1974, intending to register it for merchandise such as clothing, downloadable media, and entertainment services, while describing it as an extension of the "rock on" or "devil horns" symbol associated with heavy metal culture. The gesture in question is identical to the ILY sign in (ASL), a longstanding informal expression for "I love you" formed by combining the fingerspelled letters I, L, and Y, which originated among Deaf schoolchildren and was in established use within Deaf communities well before 1974. Following swift backlash from Deaf advocates and ASL users, who emphasized the sign's prior cultural precedence and communal nature—predating Simmons' claimed invention by decades—the application drew widespread criticism for attempting to privatize a shared linguistic element. Simmons abandoned the pursuit via a letter of express abandonment dated June 20, 2017, less than two weeks after filing, rendering the application unsuccessful and preventing any enforcement of exclusive rights. The episode underscored challenges in trademarking hand gestures with pre-existing cultural or linguistic significance, amplifying public recognition of the ILY sign's roots in ASL without conferring ownership to Simmons or enabling commercial monopolization.

Debates on Cultural Appropriation by Hearing Populations

Some members of the Deaf community have criticized hearing individuals' non-contextual adoption of the ILY sign, particularly in gestures detached from its linguistic roots in American Sign Language (ASL), as a form of cultural appropriation that dilutes its original meaning and erodes Deaf linguistic sovereignty. Online discussions in Deaf forums and subreddits from the 2010s onward, such as Reddit's r/deaf and r/asl, feature accounts from Deaf users expressing frustration over hearing people using the sign casually—often as a vague symbol of positivity or affinity, akin to a "rock on" variant—without acknowledging its ASL-specific origins in conveying "I love you" or community unity, which they argue contributes to the commodification and superficialization of Deaf cultural elements. These critiques emphasize causal harms, including reduced recognition of ASL as a distinct language requiring full contextual fluency, potentially marginalizing Deaf expertise in favor of hearing-led reinterpretations; such views appear in community-driven sites like Handspeak, where the sign's appropriation is framed as an infringement on Deaf identity's core communicative practices. Counterarguments from within and outside the Deaf community highlight the benefits of mainstream visibility, positing that hearing usage promotes and without necessitating gatekeeping, as signs inherently facilitate cross-cultural exchange when decoupled from rigid origins. Proponents argue for free expression, noting that widespread adoption fosters practical inclusion—such as in campaigns—rather than erasure, with some Deaf individuals explicitly welcoming non-offensive uses that normalize signing in public spaces. Empirical indicators include rising ASL enrollment tied to pop culture exposure; for instance, universities like the reported heightened registrations for ASL courses and minors in the early 2020s, attributed to increased media representations sparking curiosity and among hearing students. Academic analyses, such as those examining hearing-led ASL dissemination on , acknowledge tensions but underscore net gains in linguistic , where broader familiarity encourages deeper over superficial . These debates reflect broader tensions in Deaf-hearing interactions, where critics prioritize preserving the sign's as a marker of linguistic —supported by community anecdotes of frustration with isolated, decontextualized gestures—against evidence-based claims of enhanced societal integration, including measurable upticks in ASL learning post-mainstream integrations that arguably amplify rather than undermine Deaf visibility. While forum-based criticisms provide raw sentiment, their anecdotal nature contrasts with quantitative trends in enrollment data, suggesting that causal dilution claims warrant scrutiny against documented accessibility outcomes, without presuming harmony or dismissing sovereignty concerns outright.

Modern Developments and Global Variations

In the 2020s, the ILY sign has experienced heightened visibility on platforms, particularly and , where it appears in ASL awareness campaigns and promoting . For instance, on International Day of Sign Languages in September 2025, multiple reels emphasized the sign's role in spreading love and correcting misconceptions about its meaning, framing it explicitly as the ASL expression for "I love you" rather than an ambiguous symbol. This digital proliferation often blends the sign with emojis or hashtags, amplifying its reach amid broader ASL trends, though platform metrics on specific ILY challenges remain anecdotal rather than quantified in public reports. Concurrent with this surge, Deaf community advocates have noted the sign's persistent utility in educational contexts, especially through mobile apps adapted for hybrid learning environments following the . Applications such as Lingvano, which reached 2.5 million learners by October 2024, incorporate video demonstrations of core signs like ILY to bridge hearing and Deaf communication gaps, emphasizing precise handshape formation over casual adaptations. Similarly, tools like PopSign and SignSchool provide interactive modules for parents and educators, maintaining the sign's instructional value in fostering accurate ASL proficiency amid remote and blended formats. While traditionally conveying romantic affection in ASL, recent social media deployments indicate a broadening toward platonic or communal expressions, as seen in non-romantic contexts like friendship affirmations and cultural pride posts; however, no large-scale surveys from the decade quantify this shift, with evidence limited to qualitative observations from Deaf influencers decrying dilutions in meaning. This evolution reflects the sign's adaptation to fast-paced online interactions, yet it has sparked critiques within Deaf circles about hearing users' superficial engagements eroding its cultural depth.

International Adaptations and Equivalents

In (BSL), the phrase "I love you" is expressed through three distinct sequential signs: pointing to the for "I," forming a circle with the thumb and tapped against the chest for "," and pointing toward the addressee for "you," rather than a single fused handshape like the ASL ILY. This separation reflects BSL's independent grammatical structure, which prioritizes sequential lexical items over initialized finger-spelled combinations derived from spoken language alphabets. Filipino Sign Language (FSL), heavily influenced by ASL due to American colonial education reforms starting in 1907, has adopted the fused ILY handshape—extending the thumb, index, and pinky fingers—as a direct equivalent for "I love you." This adaptation occurred amid broader lexical borrowing in FSL, where U.S.-style schooling introduced ASL elements into Philippine , though local tweaks sometimes incorporate Tagalog-influenced mouthing or contextual variations. Similar U.S. cultural exports via media and diaspora have led to sporadic use in other Asian sign languages, such as , but without standardization; for instance, employs a heart-shaped gesture drawn on the chest, diverging in both handshape and motion. In French Sign Language (LSF), "I love you" typically involves separate signs—a self-referential point for "I," crossed arms over the chest for "love," and a directed point for "you"—eschewing the ASL ILY's alphabetic fusion, which aligns with LSF's older, non-initialized lexical traditions tracing to the 18th century. Linguistic analyses of sign language contact highlight resistance to such ASL borrowings in established native systems, as Deaf communities favor endogenous signs to preserve phonological and morphological integrity; for example, studies on International Sign note a "tipping point" beyond which excessive ASL lexicon disrupts translingual coherence, leading to hybrid forms only in high-contact settings like global conferences. Across over 300 documented sign languages, empirical surveys reveal no universal ILY equivalent, with handshape variations (e.g., bilateral symmetric forms in some European languages versus unilateral in ASL derivatives) underscoring cultural and historical divergence rather than convergence.

References

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