When does a hoax stop being a hoax? The “OK” sign and “White Power”

In April 2017, two journalists sparked outcry on social media – and subsequently the mainstream media – when they gave the well-known “OK” sign while posing behind the podium in the White House briefing room.

Why? Because many online commentators claimed the “OK” sign is actually a sign representing “White Power” that is frequently used by white supremacists “to spread hateful messages“. While both journalists vehemently denied that white supremacy was not behind their hand gestures, the damage had already been done.

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At the start of 2017, there was very little – if anything – to back up the claim that the popular ‘OK’ sign (which has been in common usage for decades across countries such as the UK and USA to mean Okay, Understood or ‘Good Job’) had anything to do white supremacy.

In February 2017, that all changed.

As is often the case with online misinformation, reports suggest the link between the hand gesture and white supremacy was born on prankster website 4chan.org. Operation O-KKK was what members were calling it and the objective was to flood social media with fake memes and messages warning others that the hand gesture was actively linked to white supremacy when it wasn’t.

Consequently we have memes like this that absolutely did NOT come from the ACLU.

It is, truthfully, Internet trolling at its most effective. Pranksters and conspiracy theorists had previously picked up on arbitrary hand gestures and implied they meant something they didn’t in a bid to trick the Internet, with limited success. But this is flipping that idea on its head, and instead, taking an existing gesture and warning others it was actively being used by others to mean something it didn’t. Something nefarious.

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If the media bites, anyone using that gesture in the future could be accused of whatever intention the pranksters envisioned. In this case, racism. In April 2017, it’s clear that it paid off. And again in December 2017 and numerous times since.

The issue comes more complex when not only does the mainstream media buy into the gestures “new meaning”, but white supremacists do too. In this case, perhaps the broader question is this; when does a hoax stop being a hoax? If fact becomes inspired by fiction, and the “OK” gesture really is being used to communicate hateful messages because of the original misinformation, it is no longer accurate to say it’s still a hoax? In September 2018, a US Coast Guard employee seemed to suspiciously make the gesture during a live interview, and was subsequently removed from duty. His removal has the public divided. Was he really giving a white supremacist hand gesture? If he was, since it’s all a hoax anyway, some ask why remove him? If the media have reported it is an offensive gesture, then does that alone make the gesture offensive going forward?

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(It is worth noting that well known figures such as President Trump were frequently using this symbol long before February 2017, so accusations that Trump is employing some secret “white power” signal are entirely baseless)

All of this essentially capitalizes on the human tendency to find meaning or intent in otherwise arbitrary words and gestures. A hand gesture means whatever the person making the gesture intends it to mean. But we don’t always know their intention, especially if it’s a stranger in a photo or a video. So we have to fill in the blanks. Unfortunately for the US Coast Guard employee, those blanks have been filled and he’s been removed from his post. Whether you agree with the decision or not, it’s the consequence of a worrying issue.

Pertinent questions remain; has 4chan.org forever changed the meaning of a perfectly innocuous symbol? Will the media continue to keep playing into their hands? And after less successful attempts to alter the meaning of things like milk and the LGBTQ flag, what’s next on the hit list over at 4chan.org HQ?

We’re sure of one thing; given the level of control this trolling has handed to Internet pranksters, it’s unlikely they’re going to stop any time soon.