diff --git a/channels/emoji.go b/channels/emoji.go
index 5cbc381529c5ae91b67bde8d7ed07e0e359fe3b3..fb25f158584f4b6fc839108120dcfd531c222e40 100644
--- a/channels/emoji.go
+++ b/channels/emoji.go
@@ -15,13 +15,7 @@ import (
 //based on emojis found at https://unicode.org/emoji/charts/full-emoji-list.html
 const findEmoji = `[\xA9\xAE\x{2000}-\x{3300}\x{1F000}-\x{1FBFF}]`
 
-var compiledRegex *regexp.Regexp
-
-// compile the regular expression in an init so it is only
-// compiled once
-func init() {
-	compiledRegex = regexp.MustCompile(findEmoji)
-}
+var compiledRegex = regexp.MustCompile(findEmoji)
 
 // ValidateReaction checks that the reaction only contains a single emoji.
 func ValidateReaction(reaction string) error {