iStockphoto / KGrift
You have to hand it to whoever at U.S. Central Command came up with the plan to run ads on Tinder in Lebanon in order to prevent a simmering situation from boiling over into a conflict that could further destabilize the entire region.
First spotted a few days ago by freelance reporter Séamus Malekafzali, the story has since been picked up by WaPo and TechCrunch, shining a spotlight on this innovative approach from the U.S. Military to deescalate things by encouraging anyone using Tinder in Lebanon to ‘swipe left on Iran-backed militants,’ as it was so eloquently written in the Washington Post.
While in Lebanon, says he popped open Tinder to find these ads being ran by U.S. Central Command encouraging residents there to ‘not take up arms’ against the United States. A message in Arabic says the United States will “protect its partners in the face of threats from the Iranian regime and its proxies.”
Opened Tinder in Lebanon. Was greeted by an ad from CENTCOM saying in Arabic, “Do not take arms against the US and its partners”, that F-16s and A-10s are already prepared, and that the US will “protect its partners in the face of threats from the Iranian regime and its agents.” pic.twitter.com/Z6xIsQY5Gr
— Séamus Malekafzali (@Seamus_Malek) August 22, 2024
The ad itself links to this post on X from U.S. Central Command (Arabic) which features some of our military’s finest:
طائرة من طراز F-16 فايتينغ فالكون وطائرة A-10 ثوندوربولت||| تحلقان ضمن اجواء منطقة مسؤولية القيادة المركزية الأمريكية. pic.twitter.com/tCOgZVUU5H
— U.S. Central Command (@CENTCOMArabic) August 15, 2024
That message translated to english reads “An F-16 Fighting Falcon and an A-10 Thunderbolt ||| fly within the U.S. Central Command area of responsibility.” At the end of the day, this is a pretty blunt way for the United States of America to say ‘FAFO.’
We’ve been writing about Tinder here at BroBible pretty much since the revolutionary dating app launched. The oldest article on the site that I could find is from February 2013 but it’s quite possible there were older ones that got lost in server migrations or during design updates throughout the years.
Never, in a million years, would it cross my mind that Tinder would be used in PsyOps but here we are and honestly, it makes my heart swell with pride to know someone at U.S. Central Command was able to think outside of the box and come up with this strategy. The last thing the vast majority of Americans want is another war, especially not with another country on the other side of the world that the vast majority of Americans couldn’t even find a map.
Not everybody is a fan of this approach to deescalation. Someone on X wrote “Who on earth approved this and how high was everyone in their chain of command?” Many others poked fun at the idea that someone in Lebanon opened up Tinder and saw ads telling them not to poke the bear and reversed course in life.
Do I think anyone saw these ads and decided to call off something drastic? Absolutely not. Is this a chilling reminder from the United States Military that they are always watching and could mobilize in an instant in the event that something happens? It sure is.