The Christchurch Shooting is the latest attack linked to the rise of far-right terrorism. Across the world hate speech and populism is growing.

A woman who shared a photo of her “favourite ring” in a jewellery group on Facebook has been accused of making a gesture symbolising white supremacy.

“This is my favourite ring. Roast it and guess the price if you want,” the woman wrote in the post yesterday, showing her ring, and joining her thumb and forefinger in a circle.

The post, which was shared in the popular Facebook group, “That’s it, I’m ring shaming,” received more than 200 comments, from people arguing about what exactly the woman had meant with her hand gesture.

“Is that the white power hand sign?” one person asked in a comment on the post.

“Yes it is,” another replied.

“Not cool,” another said

The gesture, previously linked to various different meanings, including simply meaning “okay”, has in recent years has become linked with far right extremists and white supremacists.

Earlier this year the gesture was labelled a “hate symbol” by the Anti Defamation League.

Many commenters on the post insisted it was an innocent gesture.

“Oh in the UK it's a game we used play in secondary school, it meant you could punch the person who looked down,” another commented on the post. “But good to know it means this too!”

“It was a game we played growing up but that sign has been taken over by the white power movement,” another said.

“In the Midwest it means okay,” another said.

“I hate to make assumptions but I don’t even think (the woman who posted the photo) is white,” another said. “But keep trying put a label on her.”

But others said posting a photo of the symbol was simply not okay.

“If someone does the Nazi salute you aren’t going to say it’s fine because they aren’t white or because they say they were joking or whatever,” another said.

The woman who posted the photo later offered an explanation, “Just to be clear this is not meant to be used as a ‘white power symbol’,” she clarified.

Comments have now been closed on the controversial post.