Ballot Bold Script X

The item it marks determines whether the X approves or rejects. In mid-19th-century Australia, ballot reform used an X beside the chosen candidate instead of crossing out unwanted names; that approach later spread to Britain, the United States, and elsewhere. In current Japanese marking conventions, an X means wrong or not allowed while a circle means correct. The same X mark can therefore select or reject, depending on the system.

The digital record is much later: a 2011 Unicode working paper maps Wingdings slot w-1251, a position in a symbol font, to this character. That documents a font mapping, not where the paper-mark convention began.

Why did someone send me 🗶?

They usually mean “no,” “wrong,” or “cancel.” The sender is using a form mark as a verdict; read the surrounding words to see whether they reject an option, an answer, or a plan.