Seamus Malekafzali, an American freelance journalist based in Beirut, Lebanon opened Tinder one afternoon looking for a date. He was met with F-16s and a fatal warning from the U.S. military.
Malekafzali told Task & Purpose that he opened the dating app and the ad, accompanied with the U.S. Central Command logo was waiting for him as a swipe option where other love interests would usually be. He posted photos of the ad on X.
The ad, written in Arabic, read: “Do not take arms against the US or its partners,” and “U.S. Central Command is fully prepared and ready with F-16 Fighting Falcons and A-10 Tondar Bolt supersonic fighter jets currently in the region.”
Malekafzali said he’s seen other ads for hotels and local businesses but this was a “full page ad with animation” with the CENTCOM logo.
Though clearly aimed directly at Tinder-using men in Lebanon, Malekafzali’s post about it on his high-profile X.com account sent the ad in U.S. and western-based social media circles, which triggered questions on whether U.S. intelligence operatives were using the dating app as a conduit for messaging.
In other words, was the Pentagon using Tinder for a PSYOP?
A defense official said in a statement that they were aware of press reports but declined to “speculate on actual or alleged operations.”
“Broadly speaking and as a matter of policy, the Department of Defense does conduct military information operations in support of our national security priorities. These activities must be undertaken in compliance with U.S. law and DoD policy, and we are committed to enforcing those safeguards,” the defense official said in a statement.
CENTCOM declined to comment.
Swiping right on Hezbollah
An initial gut reaction might have you shaking your head that invoking fear in young Lebanese men looking for love could help deter World War III, but former psychological operators said the approach is not surprising.
“If I can get into the psyche of a Hezbollah fighter and make him question everything he’s doing, even his dating life – the most personal thing in his life – then maybe he’s going to question what he’s actually doing there on the Israeli border,” said David Cook, a former PSYOP non commissioned officer and executive director of the Special Operations Association of America.
“If you’re a Hezbollah fighter, you’re on Tinder looking for your next hot date in between watch guard on the border and CENTCOM has sent you an ad that says, ‘Hey, throw down your weapon and go away,’ they know where you are because Tinder uses geolocation data to give you matches in your area – just check the terms and conditions,” said Cook, who is also a director of ShadowDragon, a company that provides open source intelligence tools.
From Pin-Up girls to AI girlfriends
PSYOP operators use a common understanding that people in a war zone focus intently on security, food, water and other basic human needs, which includes sex. History is rife with examples of governments exploiting sexual desires as military tactics or for broader national security gains.
Research by a Cambridge University historian argues that During World War II, the War Department used “appeals to chivalry and heroism” to motivate American men who were drafted to fight in a war that was thousands of miles away and did little to impact their daily lives. They used newspapers, movies and other media to put alluring women in front of male soldiers with the most common example: the rise of Pin-Up girls.
In the war in Ukraine, real and AI-generated women have spoiled Russian military maneuvers through information gathered from lonely soldiers on dating apps, according to reporting from The Times.
When creating a psychological operation series, officials consider the target audience and look for vulnerabilities. In this case, it’s young men in Lebanon and their dating life.
But another former PSYOP soldier said the campaign was too simple, “abrupt” and probably more of a “one off” rather than a series with long term planning. They called the Tinder ad “catfishy” and “kind of cringe.” The former soldier with experience in similar PSYOP series focused on love also said using matters of the heart can be dangerous and turn off a target audience.
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“I would romanticize being a martyr. I would have romanticized looking for jihad. And I would have romanticized like, ‘Hey, in order to find paradise, you just have to find your way as a Muslim man,’” the former soldier said, adding that he would’ve opted for using a progressive messaging campaign that makes you want to “go down a rabbit hole.”
The former soldier said the series could have potentially gone through the Global Engagement Center, an interagency entity housed at the State Department which was created during the Obama administration in 2016. The GEC coordinates U.S. counterterrorism messaging to foreign audiences.
Cook said the psychological implications of a series like the Tinder ads could be similar to when someone talks about something and later sees an advertisement for it on Facebook.
“In a world where if I talk about something and an ad pops up, that could mean that a kamikaze drone is going to come smoke me in the face and that makes me feel uneasy,” Cook said. “That gives me a doubt about what I’m doing.”
Malekafzali said he had seen clandestine ad campaigns in Lebanon previously, “but usually they are wise to not use the insignia of U.S. military powers.” Since posting his tweet, Malekafzali said he hasn’t gotten any formal government outreach but “I got messaged from woman who now know that I’m single.” (Perhaps this was a successful PSYOP on his part?)
Philip Fry, a spokesperson for Tinder said the ad was “promptly removed” after it was brought to their attention because it violated their policies.
“Tinder works closely with our advertising partners to help ensure all ad content complies with our guidelines, including those related to violence, safety, and advocacy,” Fry said.
The former soldier said that the Tinder PSYOP series reflects the bigger problem facing PSYOP units with a lack of clear authority oversight after they were moved under a non-PSYOP focused command.
A DOD Inspector General report found that the Army doesn’t have enough PSYOP soldiers to fight the information war with China and Russia. Current and former soldiers pointed to the restructuring as a source of the problem.
The former PSYOP soldier also said that the Pentagon often turns to contractors to create and disseminate their messages.
“They didn’t do their homework to find out that you don’t use the love app for war and you gotta check the terms of service,” the former soldier said.
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