Safari mobile does not respect CSS color attribute for HTML entity ✖

Bit of a confusing one, the color attribute is respected on the desktop version of Safari but not on mobile.

I tested it on an iPhone 5 (iOS version 9.2.1).

Sample code (first span will appear black on safari mobile):

 <html>
   <head>
      <style>
         span { color: white; }
      </style>
   </head>
   <body>
      <span>&#10006;</span>
      <span>&times;</span>
      <span>×</span>
   </body>
 </html>

and JSFiddle link: https://jsfiddle.net/9t3v8846/

Adding !important didn't do anything. Any ideas what might be causing this?