Few methods of communication are as straightforward as a protest sign.

With a few words and maybe an image or two, you can tell the world exactly what you think about an issue.

These days, however, the sign you hold may not say what you think.

Thanks to the widespread popularity of photo-editing software such as Photoshop, online pranksters can now doctor your sign to say anything they want. Protest signs can now be easily hijacked by the opposition.

In many cases, this sign-jacking is done for satire.

The Web site Buzzfeed, for example, ran photos of Tea Party protest signs alongside Photoshopped versions that claimed to show what the protesters really meant.

A protest sign that read "Obama's Plan: White Slavery" was changed to "Black People Are Scary." "The American Taxpayers Are The Jews For Obama's Ovens" became "I Have No Concept Of World History."

Anti-gay protester Fred Phelps has also been a target , with one of his signs changed to read "Will Paint Nasty Homophobic Signs for $$$."

At other times, the hijacked image is circulated without context or explanation, leading some Internet users to believe it's real.

That happened several years ago when the Council on American-Islamic Relations received an anonymous e-mail with a photo of Marine Lance Cpl. Ted Boudreaux Jr. in Iraq.

In the picture, he is standing next to an Iraqi boy holding a cardboard sign that says "Lcpl Boudreaux killed my dad, then he knocked up my sister!"

Countless other versions of the sign also circulated online. One said Boudreaux "saved my dad, then he rescued my sister!" and another said he "saved my dad, then he fixed up my sister!"

And yet another version of the photo had the sign reading: "Still safer here than at Michael Jackson's!"