After getting an emoji accepted I submitted a proposal for the external link symbol in 2018, trying to address the committee's concerns from the several earlier proposals. https://doubly.so/pub/External-Link-2018.pdf

It was summarily rejected with the nonsense statement (in full):

> Thank you for your submission. This was discussed during last week's UTC meeting. I was directed to let you know UTC feels that, as submitted, the proposal does not sufficiently demonstrate a plain text need for such a symbol. The context for usage is mark-up with links by default.