One of America’s oldest civil rights organisations has said it does not think the thumb and forefinger “OK” hand gesture is a white supremacist sign.

The Anti-Defamtion League (ADL) issued the clarification after two journalists known to be supporters of Donald Trump made the sign while standing behind the podium at the White House press briefing room.

The two reporters vehemently denied they were either white supremacists or that they were making a sign in support of such views. However, the image of them sparked a storm on social media, with some commentators arguing that the symbol was a way to indicate ‘white power’, as reported by The Independent.

A previous entry on the hate symbols database of the ADL refers to the use by white supremacists of a two-handed hand sign in which one hand forms the letter "W" and the other hand forms the letter "P", to represent WP or "White Power". The "OK" symbol is the same as the "W" in this two-handed gesture.

The ADL has now suggested the one-handed "OK" symbol alone is not a sign indicating white supremacy.

“Has the simple thumb-and-forefinger “OK” hand gesture become a white supremacist hand sign,” the organisation asked in a blog post.

“Well, no, it hasn’t, but you are likely to hear just the opposite from social media, thanks to the latest hoax from members of notorious website 4chan.”

The resurgence of the symbol may be traced back to a popular alt-right meme, known as “smug Pepe,” which began circulating on alt-right, pro-Trump message boards in 2015. Mr Trump often uses the symbol when speaking, explaining its significance with the president’s supporters.

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The ADL, a Jewish organisation established in 1913 to protect civil rights and oppose anti-semitism, pointed to an anonymous 4channer announcing “Operation O-KKK” in February, telling 4chan members “we must flood Twitter and other social media websites…claiming that the OK hand sign is a symbol of white supremacy”.

The ADL said the OK hoax was simply the latest in a series by 4channers and others, to try and take innocuous items, symbols or gestures and falsely attribute white supremacist meanings to them. One was the concept that white supremacists were drinking milk to show “the superiority of the white race” and the “purity of white milk”.

Writing on the subject for BuzzFeed, Joseph Bernstein said that that hoaxers hoped their fake ‘Trump hate memes’ would gain media attention so they could then point to them as evidence of bias against the President and his supporters.

“Where it gets really fuzzy, however, is trying to determine when and if these symbols cross over from ironic usage,” he added. “Take milk. While milk as a supremacist symbol may have started as a sneering troll, it has now become an oft-used prop to publicly signal support for white nationalist politics at rallies, protests, and brawls.”

The ADL quoted its own researcher on extremism, Mark Pitcavage, who said that “most hate symbols appear and spread organically, over time”.