Editing Faxlore (section)

==Legal aspects==
In the [[United States]], collections of supposedly sinister symbols have been circulated among [[school]] administrators and [[police department]]s; in the 1980s these symbols were frequently alleged to be "[[Satanism|Satanic]] symbols", and in the 1990s they were alleged to be "gang symbols".  [[politics|Political]] or [[religion|religious]] symbols, like the [[peace symbol]], the [[Star of David]], the [[Rosary]], the [[ankh]], or the [[pentagram]] were mingled with other cryptic or fanciful symbols in these faxed and recirculated sheets, and the entire collection was condemned.<ref>Ellis, 2000</ref>

On the authority of these anonymous, hard-to-trace, and impossible-to-[[cross-examination|cross-examine]] sources, school administrators sometimes acted to ban the wearing of Stars of David and similar symbols of minority religions.{{citation needed|date=February 2018}}  Typically, no compiler or author is given for the collection of symbols, though frightening descriptions are often given about their "secret meaning."  A number of [[civil liberties]] [[lawsuit]]s were filed over actions taken by school administrators who took these anonymous sources seriously.<ref>''Chalifoux'', 1997; ''Jeglin'', 1993; ''Jewish News Weekly'', 1999; ''Free Republic'', 2005; Bunch, 1993; Roberts et al., 2005</ref>

A similar claim that the [[Procter & Gamble]] logo was a "[[Satanism|satanic symbol]]" was linked in the 1980s to the activity of several [[Amway]] distributors, Amway being one of Procter & Gamble's competitors; the hoax was spread by fax, photocopier, and later by [[voice mail]] and email.<ref>Emery, 1998</ref> Another occasional hoax claims that clothing and memorabilia of various [[university|universities]] or [[sports]] teams are "gang symbols".<ref>''Jeglin'', 1993; Roberts et al., 2005</ref>