# Parsing error

**URL:** https://talk.observablehq.com/t/parsing-error/2921
**Category:** Feedback
**Created:** [March 10, 2020, 3:14pm UTC](https://talk.observablehq.com/t/parsing-error/2921 "2020-03-10T15:14:24Z")
**Posts on this page:** 2
**Page:** 1

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### Author: ![bumbeishvili](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/talk.observablehq.com/bumbeishvili/32/4220_2.png) [@bumbeishvili](https://talk.observablehq.com/u/bumbeishvili)
#### Post date: [March 10, 2020, 3:14pm UTC](https://talk.observablehq.com/t/parsing-error/2921/1 "2020-03-10T15:14:25Z")

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I came across with parsing error

> **[Untitled](https://observablehq.com/d/1fbc2b856f76f2de)**
>
> Parsing error

![Screen Shot 2020-03-10 at 19.13.27](https://canada1.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/uploads/observablehq/original/2X/4/4e946307c4ee7f3dec39bc6b174466f15661f6d6.png)

![Screen Shot 2020-03-10 at 19.13.32](https://canada1.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/uploads/observablehq/original/2X/b/b5af09bc0b55785ead666cb2d1684632f4b64847.png)

Is it because of `content` property value?

![Screen Shot 2020-03-10 at 19.15.19](https://canada1.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/uploads/observablehq/original/2X/4/46cd529836422698499fe5142577a7c86f875843.png)

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### Author: ![mbostock](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/talk.observablehq.com/mbostock/32/9_2.png) [@mbostock](https://talk.observablehq.com/u/mbostock)
#### Post date: [March 10, 2020, 3:49pm UTC](https://talk.observablehq.com/t/parsing-error/2921/2 "2020-03-10T15:49:48Z")

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The problem is the backslash. You need two backslashes to represent a backslash within an HTML or Markdown tagged template literal because a single backslash is reserved for Unicode escape sequences (_e.g._, `\u00A9`).

Try `\\25B6` instead of `\25B6`.

Previously, this was a syntax error… and it still is if you use an untagged template literal. If you try this, you’ll see a SyntaxError: Bad escape sequence in untagged template literal.

```auto
`bad escape sequence: \unicode`

```

Possibly our tagged template literals should throw a SyntaxError in this case.