edit: Background https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OK_gesture#White_power_symbol
Seems like they managed to have white power fans actually adopt it.
1. 4chan tries to say it means "White Power"
2. the news pick this up and runs with it
3. actual white nationalists started using it
or
1. 4chan tries to say it means "White Power"
2. actual white nationalists started using it
3. the news reports that white nationalists are using it
News orgs can be easily fooled into reporting ridiculous fake shit and backfiring - like the whole "teens eating tide pods" thing causing a few teens and boomers to actually try eating them - so both are possible, I'd suspect that the latter is more likely though.
But it’s telling that the ADL at first refused to add it to their list of hate-signs, and then (according to wikipedia, after all I only heard of all this today) reversed their stance 2 years later. And almost all usage of the sign getting someone into trouble have also been 2019+ (again, from the wiki list).
However I don't think that on its use on its own would cause a mob to mass report your account or anything. It's not so self-evidently a sign of hate as a hakenkreuz or the nazi salute would be, it's just worth remembering that in some rare situations it could be poorly received.
This is what's important - it's not banned, it's not going to get you jailed. It's just going to land you in a tricky situation if you use it where it's going to be interpreted as a hate symbol.
What you do with this information is up to you.
According to him, it was a sign that KKK members in his town used to signal group membership to one another. In his telling the three extended fingers meant KKK, and they would tuck the thumb and index finger in their belts or waistband.
Either he was making it up then and it’s a complete coincidence his story matches the 4chan story 15 years later, which is also made up; or there’s a kernel of truth to it, and this guy was letting us in on some weird aspect of racist subculture that made its way to the mainstream in 2017. These people had so many other weird customs (like calling themselves wizards and dragons), I don’t see why secret hand signals are out of the question.