Gladius_ posted... Pepe the frog's creator tried to launch a campaign "Save Pepe" to pull it away from the far right extremists. He has since conceded defeat and gave up his character. So yes. Pepe is a hate symbol.
Pepe's creator would agree with that. He tried his best to save his character's image and even he gave up.
Pepe being accepted as a hate symbol by the creator doesn't really mean much in the face of its very casual usage as a generic emote template. What's happened is that people outside the loop of where and how it is used most still think that event was the end-all be all.
Which, incidentally, is exactly what the trolls wanted when they started using Pepe as a hate symbol, same as the okay sign.