"Germany, your fleet in Swe must retreat. You have 10 hours to respond with an answer or it will be disbanded. After those 10 hours, the phase will continue to Fall 1903 for the next 38 hours. Orders due 2000 on 9/3/16."
I figured out what the smiley is. It was a smiley created of the face of a certain developer for Twitch.tv. He quit the team, but the emote stayed, and it became a widely used symbol for trolling and facetiousness.