Flag: Colombia

It says "Colombia" or "I'm Colombian", usually with pride. In a name or bio it marks where someone is from or where their family is from; Colombians abroad use it the way others use a hometown. In a chat it points to the country itself: a holiday, a move, a place on the map, a bit of news.

Its biggest moments are sporting ones. When the national team plays, timelines fill with 🇨🇴, usually beside a ball, a yellow shirt or "¡Vamos Colombia!". Around Independence Day on 20 July, and 7 August, the anniversary of the battle that sealed independence, it turns up in celebration posts. There is no hidden or sarcastic meaning: it is a badge, and a warm one.

Why do Colombia, Venezuela and Ecuador all have the same colours?

They were one country: Gran Colombia, founded by Simón Bolívar in 1819. When that republic broke apart around 1830, each successor kept the yellow, blue and red of the independence movement. The emoji tells: Colombia's yellow takes the top half of the flag and the field is plain. Ecuador keeps the wide yellow but adds a coat of arms in the middle; Venezuela uses three equal bands with an arc of white stars. On a phone screen the arms and stars are tiny, so look for the thin blue and red strips: those mean Colombia.

Colombian schoolchildren learn the colours as gold (the land's wealth and the sun), blue (the two seas, since Colombia touches both the Caribbean and the Pacific, plus its sky and rivers) and red (the blood of those who fought for independence). That is tradition rather than law, but it is the explanation every Colombian will give you.