I think in all these cases context is what it comes down to. Legally there is this term "a reasonable person" and basically means if you can assume that a person can take your statement or action to mean something, then you're on the hook. I guess I'd have to read more about the case then I have an real interest in doing.
But the headline and the story are two wildly different things. My joke example is the headline I once accidentally picked up a woman cause I thought she was a man, reads way different then the story where I thought I was talking with a guy who had as dirty of a mind as me online. Well right up until they said we should do those things that's when I realized I made a happy accident
. See headline while true is super misleading. And yeah it's a joke where I took a real situation and amped it up for effect.
Or to go seriously depending on where and how he used that thumbs up would I or you have thought he gave us some go ahead.