LONDON: In a unique move, the US military has turned to dating app Tinder to issue warnings about the potential escalation of the conflict in the Middle East.
US Central Command, which oversees military operations in the Middle East and Central Asia, reportedly purchased ad space on Tinder to deter attacks on US forces and allies.
“The United States will protect its partners in the face of threats by the Iranian regime and its proxies,” the ad read in Arabic, along with images of warplanes and the logo of CENTCOM. “Do not take up arms against the United States or its partners.”
The ad also highlighted the military’s preparedness, mentioning F-16 Fighting Falcon jets and A-10 Thunderbolt fighters already stationed in the region, although there was a mix-up in describing which aircraft was supersonic.
The ad, which has since been removed by Tinder, was part of a broader psychological operations campaign, according to US officials cited by The Washington Post.
The ad was first reported by Seamus Malekafzali, a freelance journalist based in Lebanon, on Thursday.
Malekafzali, who posted screenshots of the aircraft on X, said that users swiping right on the pictures of the warplanes were taken to a CENTCOM Arabic post on X, which contained similar messages.
“I had been getting ads on Twitter from Israel before specifically about Lebanon, but ads on Tinder and other apps are usually businesses,” Malekafzali said.
“I’ve never, ever seen a government, especially a military, place an ad in a dating app.”
Experts have expressed skepticism about the effectiveness of the campaign, suggesting that such messages needed to be part of a sustained effort rather than a one-off attempt.
“I’m guessing the average belligerent is probably among a very small subset of Tinder users,” said Gittipong Paruchabutr, a retired army psychological operations officer and now a nonresident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council.
He suggested that the military should focus on platforms frequented by the intended audience, which in this case might be “military-age males.”
Both CENTCOM and the Pentagon declined to comment on the Tinder ads.
Tinder spokesman Philip Fry confirmed the ad’s removal, saying that it violated company policies on political messaging and violence.
The use of psychological operations by the US military is not new.
In June, Reuters revealed a clandestine campaign during the COVID-19 pandemic aimed at discrediting China’s Sinovac vaccine in the Philippines, seemingly in retaliation for Beijing’s efforts to blame Washington for the outbreak.
The Washington Post in 2022 reported that the Pentagon’s policy chief had initiated a comprehensive audit of covert military psyops. This came after social media companies identified and removed accounts suspected of being created by the US military, prompting a revision of policies surrounding the use of such clandestine operations.
