Symbols only have the meaning that they are given through use. A symbol that originally has one meaning can take on another meaning if it is used to convey that second meaning. Just look at what happened to the word "Isis" over the last few years--it conveys something pretty different today than it used to, doesn't it?
Nowadays, many white supremacists use the "ok" hand symbol to communicate that they are white supremacists. In this way, they have added a meaning to an existing symbol.
I feel like this is obvious, and that one needs to really be leveraging their disingenuousness to pretend to not understand it.
The article actually mentions 4chan, so you're not wrong. That's exactly where it comes from. As a troll, to screw with people who still haven't grasped "how the internet works". Lest people have forgotten about waterproof iPhones, microwaving your iPhone to charge it quickly, making "color crystals" (read: mustard gas), etc. It's a case of people having a laugh at people who really believe it's an alt-right thing. Although it may eventually become an "alt-right" thing. Poe's law and all that. But the thing about the "alt-right" is that they don't exactly try to hide it, most wear it as a badge of honor, and so don't need silly secret hand symbols to signal to one another... Don't forget that the Gay Pride flag is also a symbol of the "alt-right", so claims /pol/, the "gathering place" of the "alt-right".
Try to explain Bowsette to people who just "don't get internet culture". Internet culture has become a giant, collective in-joke that makes fun of people who aren't in on the joke. Think of it like someone who always pulls the chain of their gullible friend. Things like "Taurine is bull sperm, by the way." to mess with their naive friend drinking an energy drink. It's that kind of humor but on the scale of millions instead of single-digits/dozens. Ever get a group of friends in on a joke? Now imagine if millions of people you've never met or spoken to were in on the same joke.
I'm personally fascinated by internet culture - I "keep up" with it in the same way other people would keep up with celebrities. The ability for ideas to propagate across the network in the matter of days, sometimes hours, is nothing short of amazing.
"some members of the alt-right adopted the OK gesture to signal their identity. Many employed it, though, simply to troll liberals who had come to believe the OK hand was a genuine hate symbol"
Some members of the National Socialist Party adopted the swastika to signal their identity. Many employed it, though, simply to unsettle Jews who had come to believe the swastika was a genuine hate symbol. Which it was.
Coming back to the "OK hand". Not all insignificant cultural battles in the US (and not even in the whole of the US, just some fringe groups) apply to the world at large. In this here parts we use the OK hand just fine, non ironically and non racially, and have never heard or cared for the people mentioned in the article (either racists or trolls).
Nowadays, many white supremacists use the "ok" hand symbol to communicate that they are white supremacists. In this way, they have added a meaning to an existing symbol.
I feel like this is obvious, and that one needs to really be leveraging their disingenuousness to pretend to not understand it.