(CNN) Beloved internet meme Pepe the Frog has gone through various incarnations over the years, most of them innocuous and amusing. But recent appropriations of the smirking green frog as Adolf Hitler, a Klansman and numerous racist caricatures have earned him a spot in the Anti-Defamation League's database of hate symbols. "Once again, racists and haters have taken a popular Internet meme and twisted it for their own purposes of spreading bigotry and harassing users," Jonathan A. Greenblatt, ADL CEO said in a statement. "These anti-Semites have no shame. They are abusing the image of a cartoon character, one that might at first seem appealing, to harass and spread hatred on social media."Pepe the Frog is one of the Internet's most popular memesIn recent years his visage has been used in racist and anti-Semitic imagery
"However, if the meme itself is racist or anti-_ in nature, or if it appears in a context containing bigoted or offensive language or symbols, then it may have been used for hateful purposes."