How a 4chan hoax gave the OK hand sign a second meaning

In February 2017, users of an anonymous message board planned to convince the internet that a common hand gesture was a white power symbol. Two and a half years later, the Anti-Defamation League added that gesture to its hate symbols database. Both facts are true, and the gap between them is the story.

October 31, 2026 · 4 min read · TruthRanking

The first source

In February 2017, a user on the anonymous message board 4chan announced what the poster called "Operation O-KKK," according to a timeline published by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL). A screenshot on Know Your Meme shows the post dated February 27, 2017. The post urged other users to flood Twitter and other social media with the claim that the gesture was a white supremacist symbol.

The post came with a graphic. It argued that the three raised fingers form a "W" and the circle made by the thumb and index finger forms a "P." It also suggested hashtags such as #PowerHandPrivilege and #NotOkay. The ADL later described the goal as baiting the media and liberals into overreacting to an everyday gesture, CNN reported.

The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) describes a controversy that same February, when Gateway Pundit publisher Jim Hoft and a writer for his site were accused of flashing a white power sign in the White House press briefing room. The SPLC also reports that some right-wing internet personalities had used the gesture as ironic trolling as early as 2015.

How it spread

The first push fizzled after a few days, the ADL says. It came back in late April 2017 and spread much more widely. Users created fake accounts and sent messages about the "symbol" to civil rights groups and journalists.

On April 28, 2017, a Fusion reporter shared a photo of two conservative media figures making the gesture at the White House, with a caption calling it a white power hand gesture, according to Know Your Meme. The Independent and BuzzFeed covered it on April 30. On May 1, 2017, the ADL published a blog post rejecting the idea that the gesture was a hate symbol. It called the sign "a nearly universal hand gesture and most usage of it is completely innocuous."

The backlash fed the joke. The ADL found that some far-right figures began making the sign in photos on purpose to keep trolling. It tracked use by some well-known white supremacists, but found the sign even more common in alt-lite circles. Some mainstream Trump supporters who used it appeared unaware of its origin, the ADL said.

On September 15, 2018, the U.S. Coast Guard said it had removed a member from its Hurricane Florence response "pending an investigation" after he made the gesture behind an officer during a live MSNBC interview, Snopes reported.

In March 2019, the man accused of the mosque attacks in Christchurch, New Zealand, made the gesture during a court appearance shortly after his arrest, CNN and NBC News reported.

What it became

On September 26, 2019, the ADL added the OK gesture to its online hate symbols database. It was one of 36 new entries, and the database had grown to nearly 200, NBC News reported. Oren Segal of the ADL's Center on Extremism told NBC the group had been reluctant to add it because "OK" had meant just "OK" for so long. The ADL said some white supremacists now seemed to use the sign sincerely.

The listing came with a caveat. According to Wikipedia's summary of the entry, it says most uses of the gesture are entirely innocuous and advises judging intent in context. Segal told NBC that context is the deciding factor.

Disputes ran alongside the listing. In May 2019, a Chicago Cubs fan was banned from Wrigley Field after making the gesture behind a TV commentator, and Oak Park and River Forest High School near Chicago spent $53,000 to reprint its yearbook after 18 students appeared making the sign, according to Wikipedia. On December 14, 2019, West Point cadets made hand gestures during an ESPN College GameDay broadcast at the Army-Navy game. On December 20, West Point announced that its investigator found the cadets were playing the "circle game," a game popular among teenagers, with no tie to extremist ideology. The SPLC concludes that, whatever else it means, the sign "unquestionably identifies the user as one thing: a troll."

What the record shows

Two popular versions of this story are incomplete. One says the ADL declared the OK sign racist. The listing says the opposite for most uses and asks readers to look for other clear indicators. The other says the whole thing was a 4chan hoax, so the sign means nothing. The hoax is well documented. So is later sincere use by some white supremacists, which the ADL cites as its reason for the 2019 listing.

The origin has layers. The 4chan post is the first documented plan to spread the white power reading, but the SPLC also describes an accusation the same month and ironic use going back to 2015. No source we reviewed identifies who wrote the post.

For any single photo, intent usually cannot be read from the image. A claim that a specific person flashed a white power sign is often unverified, and unverified is not the same as false. In the Army-Navy case, an official inquiry reached a finding. Most viral photos never get one.

How to trace a claim like this

1. Trace the meaning separately from the gesture. Scuba divers use the OK sign to say all is well, and in American Sign Language it can mean the number 9. The white power reading traces to early 2017. Our guide on finding where a claim started covers the method.
2. Read the first source for stated intent. The 4chan post said openly that it aimed to flood social media.
3. Count independent sources. Accounts sharing the same "W and P" graphic all trace back to one origin. That is republication, not corroboration.
4. Read the full listing. A headline such as "OK is now a hate symbol" leaves out the ADL's own guidance that context decides.
5. Rate each use on its own evidence. Look for an official finding or other clear indicators. Where there is neither, label the claim unverified rather than true or false.