sounds like you should strip HTML tags (and then re-strip whitespace) before checking whether a reply is an emoji reaction?
more discussion in [https://indieweb.org/reacji#How_to_markup](https://indieweb.org/reacji#How_to_markup).
more discussion in [https://indieweb.org/reacji#How_to_markup](https://indieweb.org/reacji#How_to_markup).
Stripping HTML before checking for emoji seems to be the fix in general. The advice at https://indieweb.org/reacji#How_to_markup was a result of Eddie and I chatting about it.