Chris Pratt's shirt has drawn controversy for its Gadsden flag symbol on Twitter

Chris Pratt has sparked a debate on social media after stepping out in a controversial tee shirt. The Avengers: Endgame star was recently photographed on a date with new wife Katherine Schwarzenegger, but a few Twitter users singled out the shirt that Pratt was wearing.

Journalist Hunter Harris posted a zoom of Pratt’s black shirt on Twitter, which features the American flag. If you look closely however, a coiled rattlesnake symbol can also be seen on it alongside text which reads “Don’t tread on me”.

Some criticised while others praised Pratt for his choice of shirt and more importantly, the symbol on it. The symbol is a reference to something called the Gadsden flag, originally a liberty flag dating back to the 1700s, when America was fighting British colonial rule. The shirt's meaning has expanded since then and is “interpreted to convey racially-tinged messages in some contexts” according to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

Pratt’s version of the flag is a mash up of the current US flag and Gadsden symbol, however the original flag features a yellow backdrop.

While the EEOC claimed that is is not a racist symbol, the flag has since become associated with white supremacist groups, the Tea Party and the Ku Klux Klan.

It has been at the centre of various high profile cases, including a 2014 case where an African American postal worker claimed discrimination against a coworker who came in wearing the symbol.

In the same year, two individuals who identified with the “militia and white supremacists” and were described as having "racist, anti-government views" by sources speaking to the Las Vega Sun shot and killed police officers in Las Vegas, then draped a swastika and Gadsden flag over their bodies.

Another movement which features the flag prominently is the pro-gun movement. According to website Gun Backer, “the most common interpretation of the Gadsden flag today involves gun ownership and rights”. The pro-gun website added that it believed “the phrase [Don’t Tread on Me] is cautioning the government and other people in general against trying to take rights away from gun owners”.

Pratt previously discussed his “thirty- or forty-gun arsenal” in a 2014 interview with Esquire. In the piece it was also revealed he had bought his ex-wife Anna Faris a gun “in the event that a crazy person comes to their house”.

However the actor has a more measured view on gun control than others in the community, stressing that he believes in “firearm regulation, background checks, and preventing guns from falling into the hands of the mentally ill”, as well as in “hunting licenses”. (Pratt is also known to be a keen hunter.)

The flag has also been used by metal band Metallica on their album art and they also have a song called 'Don't Tread On Me.' It has also been used as a symbol by the US Men’s Soccer Team, reflecting the flag's revolutionary spirit.

The flag initially started life as a kind of “colonial-era meme” originated by Benjamin Franklin according to The New Yorker, with a strong anti-British sentiment.

Franklin proposed sending rattlesnakes to Britain and having them “distributed... particularly in the Gardens of the Prime Ministers, the Lords of Trade and Members of Parliament; for to them we are most particularly obliged”.

The rattlesnake then became a prevailing liberty symbol popularised by a brigadier general serving in the Continental Army called Christopher Gadsden, from whom the flag’s name is derived.

American historian Marc Leepson explained, “The origins of ‘Don’t Tread On Me’ were completely, one hundred percent anti-British, and pro-revolution.”

Pratt was both criticised and praised by Twitter users, some of whom declared him the “worst Chris” in the old Internet battle to discover 'who is the best Hollywood Chris', while others asked where they could get the shirt for themselves.

Another Twitter user asked, "Am I insane or are people really saying the Revolutionary emblem is a sign of white power? Do we really have to play the sh**ty Metallica song for you guys?"

The Guardians of the Galaxy star has said in the past that politically, he doesn't "feel represented by either side".

He said in an interview with Men's Fitness, "You're either the red state or the blue state, the left or the right. Not everything is politics."

He continued, "I really feel there's common ground out there that's missed because we focus on the things that separate us."

Pratt has not commented on the shirt.