The Nazi sign was once also a symbol of peace. I think it started on 4chan

Peace and well-being. The Nazis turned it into a symbol of death and hatred.

It appears to be very recent.

I've been using almost the same sign to signal "OK" for most of my life.

OTOH, the WPS looks just like a gesture T uses when making a point in speeches.

Some 4chan jackasses appropriated it in the past few years to mean white power.

I think they think they are being clever having a "secret" sign (that somehow is no secret). But why that one? I used to use it all the time and you know what it meant?... A-OK. That's it. Period. Ok? OK.

Wait, what? Now it means "white power"? That's *not* OK. That's racists being smug little assholes thinking they are being clever when really they are exposing their pride in being dumb-shits.

How the “OK” Symbol Became a Popular Trolling Gesture

https://www.adl.org/blog/how-the-ok-symbol-became-a-popular-trolling-gesture

Basketball Ref back in the day. We used that hand gesture as number Three in identifying the Players number or in conjunction with the number fingers on the opposite hand,when signaling the score keeper as to who committed a foul. Same for football.

But,then that was back in the stone age.

First saw the use of this hand gesture about four years ago in Idaho,by a group of 3% ers in Twin Falls at a rally near their City Hall.

When he noticed a few known racists making the symbol (whether it meant white power or not is up for debate - but the 4chan person recognized he could trace a w and a P in the gesture - and heavily promoted use to troll liberals. We fell for it - now some folks who are racists (or who just don't like liberals) are using it to yank our chains.

It's apparently working, because now we're looking in every photo, video, etc. to find someone flashing OK who we suspect to be a racist jerk to confirm our suspicion. And jerks who like to make liberals look foolish are flashing it just to see us react. And we are.

I even fell for it with the second incident of Nina Bash, because a heavily edited tape was posted in various locations. It was hard to believe she would intentionally make the symbol the second day, after the furor the first day. But the tape posted didn't show the lead-in to the gesture.

Now that I've seen the full tape, it is clear she is communicating with someone off-camera (she looks to her right, mouthes "oh" and flashes the OK symbol.) Since I do it automatically all the time - even if I knew the camera was on me, I likely wouldn't be able to stop myself before making the gesture. I know, because it happens all the time - nearly always after my hand has already formed the gesture the thought of all the furor here pops into my head.

As to others recently - I don't think anyone seriously is sending not-so-secret signals of their identity as a white power advocate. But I do think some are using it deliberately to get a reaction out of liberals.

This matches the opinion of the ADL