Strip emoji characters in Ruby

strip_emojis.rb

def strip_emojis(text)
  text = text.force_encoding('utf-8').encode
  clean = ""

  # symbols & pics
  regex = /[\u{1f300}-\u{1f5ff}]/
  clean = text.gsub(regex, "")

  # enclosed chars
  regex = /[\u{2500}-\u{2BEF}]/
  clean = clean.gsub(regex, "")

  # emoticons
  regex = /[\u{1f600}-\u{1f64f}]/
  clean = clean.gsub(regex, "")

  #dingbats
  regex = /[\u{2702}-\u{27b0}]/
  clean = clean.gsub(regex, "")
end