Pepe the Frog meme branded a ‘hate symbol’

Online cartoon Pepe the Frog has been added to the Anti-Defamation League (ADL)’s database of hate symbols.
Other logos cited as offensive by the ADL include the Swastika and the “Blood Drop Cross” of the Ku Klux Klan (KKK), BBC has reported.
The anti-bigotry group said “racists and haters” had “taken a popular Internet meme and twisted it.”
Pepe has recently been depicted as Adolf Hitler and a member of the white supremacist KKK.
Pepe made his debut in 2005 in artist Matt Furie’s “Boy’s Club” cartoons. Since then, pictures of the creature have spread through the online communities 4chan, 8chan, and Reddit, where users can post an image for others to comment on.
These are mostly used to express emotions or experiences, but some racist and anti-Semitic versions have spread virally on Facebook and Twitter. 
“These anti-Semites have no shame,” ADL’s chief executive Jonathan A Greenblatt said. “They are abusing the image of a cartoon character, one that might at first seem appealing, to harass and spread hatred on social media.”
The Alt-Right movement, a disparate group of right-wing social media users, has repeatedly shared Pepe re-workings on social media.
The movement has been described as an alternative to mainstream conservatism, but its proponents have repeatedly abused Jewish Americans and portrayed white people as oppressed. 
The Alt-Right has claimed Mr Trump as its presidential candidate of choice. The mogul has not approved it, but did re-tweet a caricature depicting him as Pepe the Frog in October 2015, with the caption “You Can’t Stump the Trump”.

Source: Arab News