Why Is the U.S. Military Buying Tinder Ads in Lebanon?
Independent journalist Séamus Malekafzali, an American who lives in Beirut, wanted to make some plans for the weekend. So he opened up Tinder, the location-based dating app. But instead of interested singles, he found an apparent ad from his own government threatening to bomb his city.
“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, the U.S. military command responsible for the Middle East and Central Asia. “Do not take up arms against the United States or its partners.”
Just in case the message wasn’t clear enough, the ad continued: “CENTCOM is fully prepared with F-16 Fighting Falcon fighters and supersonic A-10 Thunderbolt fighters already in the region.” Whoever translated the ad seems to have gotten things mixed up. The F-16 is supersonic and the A-10 is not.
Malekafzali, who was surprised by the ads, posted screenshots on social media. “I had been getting ads on Twitter from Israel before specifically about Lebanon but ads on Tinder and other apps are usually businesses,” he tells Reason. “I’ve never ever seen a government, especially a military, place an ad in a dating app.”
CENTCOM’s media team declined to comment. Tinder did not respond to a request for comment.
Israel and Lebanon have a history of conflict, and they have been in a low-grade border war since October 2023, when the Lebanese militia Hezbollah began bombarding the Israeli border in the name of the Palestinian cause.
As of last month, Hezbollah attacks on Israel had killed 23 soldiers and 10 civilians, and Israeli attacks on Lebanon had killed around 366 fighters and 100 civilians. Tens of thousands of people in both countries were forced to flee their homes. So far, the fighting has been contained to border areas, although Israeli jets have frequently buzzed Beirut, the Lebanese capital, and Hezbollah drones have buzzed Haifa, a major Israeli port.
Some Israeli officials have been calling for a full invasion of Lebanon, and there is a growing movement of Israelis w
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