'OK' Symbol

The “OK” hand gesture is a common hand gesture. Given its common use in everyday non-hateful contexts, its appearance should always be identified and evaluated in context.

In the mid to late 2010s, far-right influencers began making the gesture on social media; in 2017, posters on the website 4chan started a hoax claiming that the everyday hand gesture was a secret hate symbol in an effort to mock and troll perceived opponents and provoke those opponents into an overreaction.

While initially promoted as a hoax and attempt at trolling, the gesture has since become common across the far right as an unironic symbol to “signal their presence to the like-minded” and as an expression of belief. The Christchurch shooter, after his arrest on terror charges in 2019 for murdering 51 people at two mosques in New Zealand, displayed the hand gesture in court.